Hunters Harvelle: A Supernatural Spinoff
by cornev
Summary: What happened to Jo between BUABS and Abandon All Hope? Why did she finally agree to hunt with Ellen? Set b/w S3 & S4. NOT a romance but instead a story of family, friendship, and courage. A real hunt with plenty of action. OC Colby. More summary inside.
1. Prologue

**Hunters Harvelle: A Supernatural Spin-off**

_**Summary**__**: **__In season 2, Jo took off to Minnesota to hunt by herself against her mother's wishes but in season 5, Ellen mentioned she and Jo had been hunting together 'for some time'. This is my version of how the two overcame their differences and came back together. Set in between seasons 3 and 4, Jo is hunting a Wendigo in Vermont and runs into trouble. This fic has an OC, Colby (from my season 4 trilogy but you __**don't**__ have to read those stories first), but Sam and Dean are only in it through reference. This is __not__ a romance but is instead a story about courage, family and friendship, set in Kripke's wonderful world of bloodthirsty monsters and awe-inspiring human bravery._

_**Author's Note**__:__After watching 'No Exit', I will admit I wasn't a big fan of the character Jo. But she redeemed herself a bit in 'Born Under a Bad Sign' and let's face it, in 'Abandon All Hope', she totally rocked. And Ellen – well Ellen always rocked! So all you Jo-haters, I encourage you to give this fic a chance. BTW, this is definitely NOT a Jo-Dean fic :-)_

_**Disclaimer**__: I don't own anything from Kripke's masterpiece. I'm just filling in some of the gaps he left us to play with. :-)_

_**Warning**__: Possible spoilers for seasons 1 to 3. Some swearing (not much, but a little more than you would likely see on the show). There will be violence and killing because, after all, this is a Supernatural fic._

_**Soundtrack**__: I'm a huge fan of the music of the show and Jo's character was shown to appreciate some decent tunes so, like my other multi-chap fics, I have included my own soundtrack (- - - noted like this - - -)._

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**Chapter 1 Prologue**

_Near Highgate Falls, Vermont_

It was dark by the time Jo finished scratching the last of the Anasazi symbols into the ground surrounding the hunting cabin. Its two residents, a couple of game-hunting buddies from Maine, were having a noisy game of poker in the lamplight of the cabin's main room, swapping old stories from their glory days and repeatedly expressing their relief about getting away from their wives for the week. Both were oblivious to the danger they were in and completely unaware their lives were currently in the hands of the young woman sneaking through the woods outside.

Jo had met the two older men at suppertime in the main hunting lodge that was situated a couple of miles closer to town but, despite her best efforts, she hadn't been able to talk them into packing up and going home. They were both convinced the recent disappearances were just city-folk getting lost or wandering off drunk in the middle of the night.

"Besides," they had scorned, "Even if it is a bear, we'll be safely tucked away inside our cabin for the night so you needn't worry your pretty little head o'er two ex-army Rangers such as ourselves."

Jo knew better. She'd had no qualms about taking the men's money during a friendly poker game over supper, answering back with practiced ease to their suggestive jokes, slipping in just enough sass to keep it civil but at the same time making it clear that 'it' just wasn't gonna happen. She had grown up in a bar, hustling everybody from local drunks to shrewd and street-smart hunters. Tom and Russ may be a little crude, but that didn't mean she was about to let them get eaten by a Wendigo.

The perimeter now secured, she gathered her flaregun and homemade blowtorch and hunkered down in the shadows at the side of the cabin to wait for the beast to show up. Wendigos, creatures in Native American folklore that were believed to once have been humans who had turned to cannibalism, were extremely fast. She figured she'd only get one shot at it once it discovered the line of markings prohibiting it from reaching the cabin and its intended prey.

_( - - - The Waiting (is the Hardest part) by Tom Petty - - -)_

By three o'clock in the morning, Jo found herself feeling painfully stiff in her crouched position. Still continually scanning the surrounding area for movement that could possibly be a Wendigo trying to approach the cabin, she allowed herself a quick stretch of her cramping muscles. As she rose, however, she spotted a man walking silently across the grass from the direction of the supposedly empty cabin across the moonlit clearing. She ducked quickly back down to avoid being seen.

_Damnit_. She had thought Tom and Russ were the only occupants in the remote cluster of cabins of the Big Buck Hunting Cabins and Lodge. That was the reason she had focused her stake-out on their digs, essentially using them as bait. She bit her lip and held her breath as she watched the newcomer approach. He was a stocky man in a heavy, dark coat and she didn't recognize him from the lodge. Until he neared the cabin, he wasn't inside the circle of symbols she had drawn and was therefore completely vulnerable. She let out a sigh of relief as he strode up the front steps and knocked sharply on the door, seemingly oblivious to her presence.

The light was still on in the cabin but the only sound she had heard for the past three hours was a steady chorus of drunken snoring. The man on the porch didn't bother knocking twice but instead let himself in. Jo wondered for a brief second if she should alert Tom and Russ. If this guy wasn't a friend of theirs, they could get up in the morning to find all their gear and valuables gone. She decided instead to hold her position. If the schmucks got robbed that wasn't her problem. She was only here to keep them alive.

Keeping them alive suddenly became an issue when she heard a scream from inside the cabin. A scream of utter terror that ended abruptly with a horrifying gargling sound. In an instant she was on her feet, racing up the porch steps two at a time towards the open front door.

She paused on the threshold, her heart skipping a beat in horror at the gruesome sight before her. Tom lay on the floor face-up, his plaid shirt ripped to shreds exposing a hairy beer belly complete with gaping, bloody hole in its center. Russ was still alive, his eyes wild and pained as they stared at the beast holding him up against the far wall by the neck.

Jo raised the flare gun and fired at the figure, which was definitely not that of the man she had watched walk in here. Instead it was a much bulkier, dark creature covered in what appeared to be slimy, leather-like skin. Her mind registered that it didn't fit the general description of a Wendigo, which were said to be tall, thin creatures with bony, stick-like claws, but she made a quick, inward plea that the flare gun would work anyway.

It didn't.

The projectile struck the creature in the middle of the back then instantly fizzled. Jo had been reaching for the torch but opted quickly for her shotgun instead, swinging it around from the sling on her back and firing. After barely flinching at the impact of the flare, the creature had snapped Russ's neck with a loud crack and spun on its new attacker as it dropped the man's body to the ground. The salt round that landed in its chest forced it back a couple of feet but it regained its balance almost instantaneously and lunged forward.

Jo took a step backwards as she pumped the shotgun and fired again. Her aim was dead on and she hit the advancing creature center mass. It hesitated briefly but kept coming, moving unnaturally quickly. She got one more round off and made it two steps out the door before it caught up with her, ripping the shotgun out of her hands and throwing her forcefully back inside the cabin. She careened over the wooden table and slammed into the mounted head of a seventeen-point buck on the wall, biting back a cry of pain as the deer's antler tore a decent sized gash in her side. Dropping to the ground next to the woodstove with a hard thud that had her seeing stars, she instantly struggled to get to her feet before the creature reached her again. It stomped heavily into her personal space while she was still on her knees and a sudden rank smell swept over her. It was like sewage, or damp laundry and mud. No swamp, it was definitely swamp.

Whatever the smell, Jo was too preoccupied to give it any more thought than her initial identification. She no longer had the flare gun or the shotgun and the creature was practically on top of her. She pulled her lighter from her pocket and flicked it on, depressing the trigger on the torch as she did so. Flame shot out of the small tank, straight up into the face of her attacker.

She heard a disheartening sizzle and saw the end of the flame being quickly extinguished as soon as it hit its target. A heavy hand swung across inches from her face, sending the torch skittering harmlessly across the floor. The hand recoiled for another strike as the young hunter scrambled away along the wall, reaching instinctively for the knife she always kept at the small of her back. Though she didn't much like her chances with a four inch blade, it was the only weapon she had left and she jabbed it upwards at the leathery mass hovering menacingly over her.

She felt the blade sink into its bulky arm with a squishy sound but was unable to stop the hard blow it landed on the side of her face. She was slammed down on the ground and the pain from the back of her head smashing into the hard floor didn't even get a chance to register before her vision went blank and her mind swirled in waves of disorientation. She fought in vain to regain lucidity and groggily realized the final blow she was expecting hadn't come yet. In fact, she wasn't even sure the series of gunshots she was suddenly hearing was real.

As she lay on the floor struggling for breath, a blurry shape appeared above her, its abnormally huge head lowering to hover over her face. Still clutching her small knife, she swiped her arm at the figure, desperate to fend it off before she lost consciousness. She was unsuccessful and felt the knife being pried from her hand as blackness finally descended around her.

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_**Author's note: **Hopefully you enjoyed. I'll be posting chapters for this one quite quickly as it isn't a very long story. I would love it if you let me know what you think so far._


	2. Could Have Been Worse

_**Previously**: Still clutching her small knife, she swiped her arm at the figure, desperate to fend it off before she lost consciousness. She was unsuccessful and felt the knife being pried from her hand as blackness finally descended around her._

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**Chapter 2****: Could Have Been Worse**

Jo came to slowly, the strands of her awareness winding back together like a length of rope that had come unraveled. She was taking note of her surroundings when her last memories came back in a flash that had her eyes flying open with a gasp of panic.

_( - - - Know Your Enemy by Green Day - - - ) _

She was in her room at the main lodge. She knew it was her room because she had rented the smallest, and therefore cheapest, one they had, a converted storage room with a closet-sized washroom and a wire-framed bed with a lumpy mattress. It was on that lumpy mattress that she found herself now, tucked in under the scratchy lodge sheets.

She threw the covers to the side as she moved to sit up but was stopped by a sharp sting in her side. Her hand instinctively clamped over the source of the pain but that maneuver only offered further surprising revelations. She found the gash bandaged over, a clean white square of gauze taped neatly on her side. The more unsettling thing, however, was the fact that she could see the bandage clearly because she wasn't wearing her blouse.

_How in the Hell had she gotten here?_ She felt more alarm at waking up in only her jeans and bra than relief that she was in her own bed.

Jo snatched the covers back over her, scanning the room warily. She noticed a large dog lying on the floor in front of the bathroom door, its blue eyes fixed on her, calm and unblinking.

_Okay, that was kinda freaky._

Her heart lurched when she heard a sudden noise from inside the bathroom. She was about to get up but the door handle started turning and the hunter realized she would never get into a defensive position in time. Thinking quickly, she lay back down and closed her eyes just as the door opened, her hand sliding surreptitiously under the pillow, reaching for the knife she always kept there.

Faking unconsciousness, Jo heard someone come out of the bathroom and the sound of bare feet shuffling around the room. Her fingers still sweeping slowly under her pillow in search of her knife, she decided to risk a peek at her apparent houseguest.

Subtly opening one eyelid just a crack revealed a man on the far side of the room, standing in front of the window. Though the curtains were drawn closed, she could see slivers of daylight peeking in through the center gap, indicating the arrival of morning already. The man had his back to her and she didn't recognize the straggly, longish brown hair as anyone she knew. Wearing only jeans, he had clearly just taken a shower – _in her shower!_ – and was pulling a flannel shirt out of an unfamiliar duffel bag. He put it on but turned around as he buttoned it up so she quickly squeezed her eye back shut. The soft rustle of his footsteps grew closer and her heart thumped in her chest when she heard the sound of his breathing alongside the bed.

Her hand resumed its covert search under the pillow for her knife, fingers fanning out slowly in hopes of finding a solid means of protection. They were coming up empty when she heard a chuckle and the man spoke.

"If yer lookin' fer yer little pigstick," he said in a thick, Texan drawl, "I put it over on the bedside table. You already tried to take my eye out once with that thing."

The voice was pleasant and far from threatening but she pulled on a scowl before opening her eyes. She found herself staring at a young man of about twenty-three or so, her age, who was standing next to the bed with his arms folded across his chest. He had a smile on his face and she noted with relief that it seemed to reach his friendly green eyes. She also couldn't help but notice it was a rather handsome face. He was now wearing a cowboy hat and as she looked up at him, the image triggered a vague memory of a blurry shape looming over her before she had lost consciousness - a shape with an abnormally large head.

_Damn._ She hated getting rescued. Especially by a guy. Doubly especially by a good looking guy with a smirk on his face.

"Where's my shirt?" she demanded as she sat up, throwing far more attitude into the words than seemed wise in her current situation.

The guy just chuckled and sauntered away towards the small table on the far side of the room. He grabbed Jo's duffel and proceeded to root through it, pulling out one of her own clean tee-shirts. She huffed her annoyance at his nerve when he tossed it over to her.

"Your other one was ripped and bloody," he said with an unapologetic shrug. "Don't reckon you'll want to put it back on."

Jo just glowered at him, struggling to get her arms through tee-shirt sleeves while still holding the sheet up in front of her.

He rolled his eyes before making an exaggerated show of turning away towards the window while she slipped the shirt over her head. "You ain't got nothin' I ain't seen before," he drawled with a bit of a snort.

That just annoyed Jo further. Part of her figured she should probably thank the guy since she was pretty sure he had saved her life but his presumptuous attitude was grating on her nerves. "You certainly seem to have made yourself at home," she snapped.

He must have taken that as a cue she was dressed for he turned back around. "What?" he grinned cheekily. "Coz I took a shower? I save your neck and patch you up and you grudge a man a shower?"

"So you were there last night?" Jo asked, throwing the covers off, sliding her legs off the bed and reaching for her knife which was, as promised, on the bedside table. As she swung it around to slip it back into the sheath at the small of her back, the dog sprang to its feet, a barely audible growl escaping its throat.

"Shelby!" the man admonished. The dog, a large Siberian husky, was immediately silenced and gave him a sheepish wag of the tail.

"Yep," he answered as he turned back to Jo. "I was waiting a ways away outside the cabin for what I figured was a Wendigo. Saw a dude go in, then you went all Annie Oakley and charged up on in too. By the time I got in there, the two men were dead and it looked like you were about to join 'em."

"What was that thing then?" Jo asked, working up the courage to slide a thank-you into the conversation.

"I dunno," the cowboy shrugged. "Didn't get a real good look at it, but it definitely morphed into something different from the man that walked in. It barely flinched at salt rounds and both our flare guns did squat but it squealed like a pig at my consecrated iron rounds in its belly and it jack-rabbited when the lamp got knocked over and the cabin caught fire."

"The cabin caught fire?" Jo hadn't expected that news.

"Burnt to a crisp."

"Tom and Russ."

"If that's the two old coots that rented the cabin, like I said, they're dead. Burnt to a crisp, too."

Jo nodded, remembered now seeing Tom's body when she'd first entered the cabin. They'd been dead before the fire. "So you're a hunter?" she said, noting the guy had mentioned a wendigo and consecrated iron rounds. She wasn't very surprised at the revelation. A normal guy would have taken her to a hospital.

"Yes, mam," he grinned, tipping his head slightly and touching the rim of his hat in a southern display of manners. "Name's Colby."

"Colby what?"

"Hutchins."

Jo knew a lot of hunters but had never heard of this guy. He was young so he was probably just starting out. Or maybe he just never frequented the Roadhouse before it had been destroyed by demons.

He smiled at her expectedly for a moment. "Well, you got a name?" he said finally. "Or should I just call you Annie?"

She scowled but couldn't hold it very long. She was irritated he had apparently given himself free reign in her room while she was out cold but couldn't deny the fact that he had saved her life. "Jo Harvelle," she offered, finally begrudging him a smile. "I guess I owe you a thank-you."

"Don't mention it," he grinned, giving her a wink.

Although still annoyed at herself for needing saving, she found herself grinning back._ Could have been worse_, she thought, taking in his dimples and the friendly glint in his green eyes. She knew a lot of hunters and most of them were grizzled, stern old men with drinking problems and anger management issues. So yep, it definitely could have been worse.

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Colby Hutchins turned out to be more than willing to share what he knew about the hunt so far, unlike most hunters Jo knew. Unfortunately, he didn't know any more than she did. He had been tossed the possible Wendigo case yesterday by an old hunter friend in nearby Canaan named Rufus Turner. Jo had heard of Rufus, vaguely remembering him frequenting the Roadhouse when she was very young, before he had apparently retired. He wasn't known for having many friends.

Colby was told four people had gone missing in the area in the past two weeks, which matched the information Jo had dug up. The first had been a hunter staying in another of the remote cabins a couple of hundred yards from Tom and Russ's. Blood had been found in the empty cabin and the police report was leaning towards bear attack. The second was a camper who had disappeared near one of the more popular trails in the area. A bloody shoe and torn clothes were all that was left of the man, whose body was also never found. The only witness was his wife, who had suffered a complete mental breakdown and had supplied no useful information, prompting the police to once again conclude the man had fallen victim to a vicious bear in the area.

Forest Rangers had been out in full force trying to track and put down the bear but no trace of it had been found. The next victims, Jack Tremoli and Trent Barber, were two of these Rangers. Trent radioed in that Jack had been attacked by something, he didn't know what, and that they needed an airlift. He also swore he had seen the silhouette of a man on the nearby ridge when he had rushed over a small crest to find his screaming colleague. Trent had then started screaming himself and the radio had gone dead. When authorities reached the given coordinates, neither body was found and the police report for that incident was listed as 'possible double homicide'.

Rufus had also given Colby some background information indicating a pattern of supposed bear attacks every thirty or so years. Despite being retired, it appeared the old hunter couldn't help but snoop for possible hunts. Jo snorted her disapproval at Colby simply being handed the intel that she had spent three long days digging up and researching.

However he'd come across the information, the young Texan had apparently come to the same conclusion Jo had that a Wendigo was stalking the area and would likely target the stubborn sole occupants of the remote cabins of the Big Buck Lodge. Although a thirty year slumber was more than Wendigos were usually known for, nothing else he was aware of fit the bill better.

He had walked the two miles up the trail from the main lodge and had been hiding outside the cabin just a little farther than Jo when the creature had shown up. After it fled, he had carried Jo to her Jeep Wagoneer, which she had left hidden in the woods near the end of the trail. He'd found her car keys and her room key in her pocket and Jo figured out how the rest of the story had gone.

"So," Colby grinned at her from where he sat sprawled on the single wooden chair in the tiny room. "I've told you all I know. Your turn. I'm sure if we put our heads together we can figure out what's been eatin' the nice folks of Highgate Falls."

Jo smiled but shook her head. "Thanks for the rescue, Colby, but I like to work hunts on my own."

The Texan didn't seem offended but looked like he was about to protest when Jo's cell phone rang. She spun around and snatched it from the bedside table, wincing when she read the call display. '_Mom_'.

For the first year after she'd left to take up a life of hunting, she had barely talked to her mother. She'd broken down and answered a call once every couple of months but they had never spoken long before it inevitably turned into an argument. Even after the Roadhouse and Ash were gone, Ellen had pressured her daughter to come home, get a job close by, maybe try college again. Eventually, the frequency of the calls began to lessen and Jo started to think her mother had finally given up.

Then about two months ago, Ellen had called again. Jo knew right off the bat something was wrong – she could hear it in her mother's voice. That was when Ellen had told her Dean had died. As if that wasn't bad enough, Bobby had confirmed that he'd sold his soul in exchange for Sam's life a year prior and the Hellhounds had finally come to collect. So Dean wasn't only dead; he was suffering eternal damnation in Hell.

Ellen had clearly been deeply affected by the news, as had Jo. Even though they didn't really know the brothers that well, there had been an instant connection between the Harvelles and the younger generation of Winchesters. Some strange sense of family that seemed oddly natural and an unspoken bond, especially with Ellen. The loss of Dean seemed to motivate the elder Harvelle to mend the rift that existed between mother and daughter, re-igniting her determination to have Jo in her life again. Only this time she had offered for that to happen on Jo's terms. She'd shocked her daughter by offering to join her as a hunter.

Jo had instinctively said no. She knew her mother meant well but the woman could be suffocating. She just didn't understand Jo's need to hunt and couldn't accept that Jo was going to put her life in danger on a regular basis to do it. Jo was not ready to give up her newfound freedom by teaming up with someone who didn't realize she was no longer a twelve-year old in pigtails. She had been ignoring her Mom's calls for weeks. She pressed 'ignore call' on her phone and decided to keep doing so.

"Boyfriend?" Colby grinned at her, clearly noting her frown.

"What? No," she denied quickly, wondering fleetingly if the question was an attempt to find out if she had a boyfriend. A little flustered, she huffed in feigned impatience. "Don't you have to get back to your own room?"

Colby shrugged as he pulled on a pair of cowboy boots. "I don't have a room. I ain't here on vacation." He ignored Jo's frown. "So you gonna work with me here or do I gotta kill this thing all by my lonesome?"

Jo was about to insist again she worked alone but couldn't help but notice the puppy-dog look he was giving her and bit her lip in deliberation. It would be a nice change to have some company in a hunt. Since burying the spirit of H.H. Holmes in concrete with the Winchesters, she had only worked with one other hunter, Matt Graves from Duluth, and that hadn't ended well. But growing up in a bar had made her quite adept at reading people and this guy seemed pretty genuine.

And hot. She couldn't help but notice the hot. She rolled her eyes and gave in.

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_**Author's note: **__I make up an imaginary cast in my head for most of my OC's, especially the major ones. I won't mention it here because I realize many people like to cast fanfiction OC's themselves, but if anyone wants to know my choice for Colby, check out my profile page. _


	3. Your Momma Ain't Gonna Like This

_**Previously**: "So you gonna work with me here or do I gotta kill this thing all by my lonesome?" Growing up in a bar had made Jo quite adept at reading people and this guy seemed pretty genuine. And hot. She couldn't help but notice the hot. She rolled her eyes and gave in._

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**Chapter 3****: Your Momma Ain't Gonna Like This**

Both hunters agreed the creature was not a wendigo. Neither, however, had any other ideas. Jo described the wet, leathery texture its skin seemed to have and the rank swampy smell she had caught a whiff of. They searched the web on Jo's laptop for a while but were unsuccessful in finding anything that fit the description.

The only unexplored lead they had left was the wife of the slain camper. Her name was Laura Grogen and when it had become apparent she had suffered a mental breakdown she had been committed to a mental institute in nearby Montgomery. Jo suggested they go see her and was pleased when Colby agreed that it was a good idea. She wasn't sure why she constantly felt the need to prove herself a capable hunter but found that need surfacing with Colby as it always did. One of the reasons she preferred to work alone. But despite his having to rescue her last night, he didn't seem to be judging her too harshly so far. Now if only her mother would be that open-minded.

As the two hunters and the dog stepped outside, Jo headed towards her Jeep only to have her elbow grabbed from behind by the Texan. She stopped and turned to give him a questioning look.

"Uh, no offense Jo, but I reckon we should take my car. Yours seriously needs some work on the tranny." He ignored her scowl. "Besides," he added with a grin. "Mine's nicer."

She looked at the older model brown Ford pick-up parked next to her Wagoneer. "That's a matter of opinion," she snorted.

Colby laughed and pointed down to the end of the row of rooms where a gleaming candyapple red 1969 Mustang Mach 1 Fastback with a white racing stripe was parked, looking oddly but beautifully out of place among the pick-ups and dusty SUV's. Jo forgot to be offended at the insult to her vehicle, for which she had saved tips and poker winnings for almost a year to buy. "Oooh" she cooed, unable to help herself, "That's your ride?"

Colby nodded, "Yes, Mam."

No wonder he had left the car here and walked the two miles up the rough trail to the remote cluster of cabins. "Can I drive?" Jo asked, expecting to be shot down instantly. Guys were excessively possessive about their cars.

"Guess so," he shrugged, handing her the keys as they walked down the length of the parking lot.

Jo strained to control her glee, her lips curling up in an overly casual smile. She liked a nice car. Sure she had only a working knowledge of the mechanics of the engines and keeping her aging Wagoneer running was a lot of work, but being raised among a rough, redneck bar crowd, she had learned to appreciate a well-cared for classic as much as the any of those men did. Besides, there was something hot about a guy with a nice musclecar. A flash of Dean Winchester leaning against a shiny black '67 Impala with a cocky grin on his face came to her mind but she dismissed it quickly.

She enjoyed the hour long drive and was mildly surprised when Colby didn't scold her for having a little fun with his pride and joy, driving quite a bit faster than was necessary once they hit the highway. He was amiable and laid-back and, although he offered up very little personal information, turned out to be fairly pleasant company. She was almost disappointed when they pulled into the gated driveway of the mental hospital in Montgomery.

Leaving the dog in the car, they walked in the main doors together and were immediately approached by a young, pretty nurse in a standard white nurse's uniform that looked like it had been hemmed up an extra inch or two. The girl couldn't have been more than twenty and was excessively friendly, especially towards Colby.

"Hi, can I help you?" she inquired, smiling directly at the man in the cowboy hat as her eyes gave him a very thorough and not-too-subtle once over.

"Uh, yes Mam," Colby said politely, ignoring the ogling. "We're lookin' fer Ms. Laura Grogen."

The nurse seemed to recognize the name. "Are you family?" she asked, her forehead wrinkling in exaggerated sympathy and leading Jo to believe Ms. Grogen must be in pretty bad shape.

"I'm her niece," Jo lied, having done the research and knowing Laura Grogen did indeed have a niece in Ohio who was only a couple of years younger than the blonde hunter. She had suggested they go for the 'family visiting' approach rather than 'official police investigation' ruse. She looked so young that it was hard to pull off the fake police identity and Colby, although he claimed to be twenty-four, looked young also.

"Well," the nurse said, "Let me see if she's up for visitors today." She returned her attention to Colby and gave him a sickly sweet smile as she batted her eyelashes at him before beckoning them to follow her to the reception desk. The hunters leaned on the counter as the nurse tapped away at keys on her keyboard and chatted about the weather to Colby. Jo rolled her eyes at the blatant flirting but the Texan didn't seem to even notice, giving her curt nods of agreement and quick, polite smiles as he tapped his foot and waited for her to finish.

Finally, the nurse made a quick phone call and told them Ms. Grogen was doing particularly well today and that the doctor thought a visit from her niece might do her some good. She led them down a long hallway and into a large room with couches and chairs. Several patients were present, playing cards at the tables or sitting on the couches. There were a couple of plain-clothed people also, who Jo surmised were visitors here to see their family members.

"An orderly will be right in with your…girlfriend's…aunt," the nurse said to Colby, phrasing it almost as a question.

"Can't we see Aunty in her room?" Jo asked. "I was hoping for a more private conversation. She's been through a lot, after all."

"I'm afraid not," the nurse answered somewhat curtly. "All visitations take place in the common room where we can keep our eye on the patients. Especially the more sensitive cases such as your aunt. I'll be here to help you make sure she doesn't get too upset. Now please don't mention the day her husband died; she'll remember that when she's ready." The nurse looked up at an orderly entering the room with a female patient in her forties. She gestured to the orderly, pointing him towards a couch in an empty corner of the room. "Here's your aunty now," she said, beckoning for the hunters to follow her to the same corner.

This wasn't good. They needed privacy for this interview. Jo would be busted as an imposter the second she greeted her 'aunt'. The blonde started to doubt their current tactic, thinking maybe the police ruse would have been the better choice. She turned towards Colby, who didn't seem particularly worried about their current bind. She gave him a quick jab in the ribs and mouthed the words 'distract her'. He rolled his eyes and groaned quietly, clearly not pleased at being delegated the new task, but cleared his throat and tapped the nurse on her shoulder.

The nurse stopped and turned around to face him but Jo kept going towards her 'aunt' in the corner. The orderly was just nodding a goodbye to the older woman and he promptly left the room.

"Excuse me," Jo heard Colby say to the nurse, "Vicky, is it?" That had been the name on the nametag. "I don't really know my friend's aunt, I was just givin' her a ride down here, and I don't want to intrude. They'll be fine over there," he assured her, a flirty smoothness suddenly appearing in his thickening drawl, "And I was wonderin' if y'all could maybe show me around a bit.…" Jo couldn't hear the rest of Colby's words but she did hear a delighted giggle in response from the nurse.

_Good work Hutchins_, she commended Colby silently. Now if she could manage to get some useful intel from Laura, she could prove her own worth in this hunt.

She sat down next to the obviously-medicated woman on the couch and leaned in to speak quietly. "Ms. Grogen? Ms. Grogen can you hear me?"

"It's Laura," the woman answered with a weak smile. "Who are you?"

"I'm Jo," the hunter explained, deciding on going with the basic truth for expediency. "I need to talk to you about what happened in the woods, Laura." The woman's eyes widened a speck, a clear indication she wasn't completely out of it.

Jo pressed on. "Look, I know what happened. I know what you saw."

Laura shook her head and made a casual comment about the weather, turning her attention to the bay windows behind them. Jo sighed. If this woman did remember anything, getting her to talk about it wasn't going to be easy.

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

Twenty minutes later, Jo found Colby and nurse Vicky sitting together outside on a wooden bench seat.

_( - - - Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy by Big and Rich - - - )_

As she approached, she could hear Vicky giggling, her hand coming to a rest on a smiling Colby's knee as she leaned towards him. "So are you like a real cowboy?" she asked him. "Like with a horse and everything?"

"Well…" Colby was answering, giving the nurse a lewd raise of his eyebrows, "I surely know how to ride..." He cut himself off as he caught sight of Jo and sat up quickly, pulling his arm off the back of the bench seat and clearing his throat. "My apologies Vicky," he drawled as he stood up, "Looks I have to be on my way. Uh, thanks for the tour."

"Aww," the nurse pouted, standing up also as she pulled a pen and paper from her nurse uniform's breast pocket. She wrote something on the paper and pressed it into Colby's palm. "I'm off at seven," she said with a wink before turning and walking away, ignoring Jo completely as she bounced past her.

Jo raised an eyebrow at Colby who just shrugged and rolled his eyes. They headed back to the car and as he got into the driver's seat of his Mustang, he crumpled the paper the nurse had given him and unceremoniously tossed it out the window.

"What, no hot date later?" Jo teased. "No teaching her how to 'ride your horse'?"

Colby snorted. "Trust me, she ain't even close to my type." He pulled out onto the road. "So, whacha find out? Tell me I didn't just get groped for nothin'."

Laura Grogen had deflected any questions Jo had posed until the hunter had explained what she had seen herself at Tom and Russ's cabin. When she had described the stocky creature with the leathery skin, Laura's eyes had snapped open and she had started nodding vigorously. Eventually, Jo had coaxed her into trying to remember what she had seen and even wrangled a vivid description out of the woman.

As well as being wet and leathery, the monster apparently had narrow, yellow slits for eyes and razor sharp teeth with fangs. It had appeared seemingly out of nowhere near the tent they had pitched on the shores of Manitou Lake. It had attacked her husband, killing him savagely and bloodily with its claws before dragging his body into the lake. She had screamed and screamed and then just started running and didn't stop until she reached the Ranger station.

"Why do you think it let her go?" Colby asked, listening intently as he drove back down the highway towards Highgate Falls.

"I don't know," Jo admitted. "So far all its victims have been men," she pointed out.

"You ain't no man," Colby grinned at her. "And it wasn't letting you go."

"I shot it," Jo deduced. "Maybe I pissed it off."

"Well, I say we check out this lake. Could be it lives in it. You said it stank like swamp."

"We still don't know how to kill the thing though," Jo hesitated.

"Consecrated iron rounds seemed to hold it off," Colby refuted. "Maybe enough of them will take it out." She caught the sideways glance he threw her way. "But you're right," he retracted quickly. "That's probably a foolhardy move. We should get more intel first."

Jo bit her lip, vividly aware of the fact she was being more cautious than him and hating the insecure feeling it was giving her. She was not a coward and she desperately didn't want to come across as one. Her self-doubt eventually worked its way around her common sense and she shook her head.

"No, you're right," she said. "We don't have any other leads. Going out to the lake's our only option. Whatever this thing is, it seems to be hungry. Its last intended meal ended up a little extra crispy so we may not have much time before it decides to kill someone else."

Colby nodded in agreement. "And with the people round here staying out of the woods, it's gonna hafta come closer to town to find its chow. There's little kids in the houses on the outskirts."

They stopped back at the lodge for lunch and to pick-up a map of the nearby trails from the lodge's outfitter store, specifically the trail to Manitou Lake. Though the remote cabins were now empty, the main lodge was bustling with activity. Being Friday, many game hunters and fisherman were checking in for the weekend but were mostly milling about the common areas gossiping about the strange goings on of late.

With regards to Tom and Russ, the word around the lodge was that they got drunk, tipped the lamp over, and were unable to escape the flames in their drunken stupor. Jo decided it was best if she not point out that the inept podunk police should probably have noticed bullet holes in the walls and that Russ had a snapped neck.

She and Colby ordered a sandwich each from the lodge cafeteria and were perusing the outfitter's gear in the store next door when a scruffy man in his early thirties approached the blonde hunter.

"Josie!" he greeted her. "Jo Harvelle! Well I'll be damned." He gave her an appraising look as he extended his hand for a handshake.

She looked up sharply and barely managed to cover a wince when recognition hit her. She took the offered hand hesitantly. "Gary," she said with a halfhearted smile. "It's been a while."

"Damn girl, you growed up nice," he grinned approvingly, gripping her hand for longer than she found comfortable. "I hear you're huntin' now. That true?"

Jo nodded and pulled her hand free, taking a step backwards. Gary had been a regular at the Roadhouse, a hunter when he was sober and a complete asshole when he wasn't. Jo had never managed to get on his mean side despite taking a fair share of money from him through badly-placed bets and poker, but she didn't particularly like the guy.

"Well, what's your take on this hunt, Josie?"

"It's Jo, Gary," she corrected impatiently. "Or Joanna, Joanna Beth, or even Joanne, but not Josie." He had always called her Josie and she had always hated it.

"Alright, alright," he laughed. "Keep yer panties on, _**Jo**_." He looked as if he was about to embellish on that comment but Jo's warning scowl clearly changed his mind for him. "So you thinking wendigo?" he asked quickly.

Jo shook her head. "It's not a wendigo," she told him, not wanting to encourage the conversation but not wanting the guy to get killed when his flare gun didn't work.

He raised a questioning eyebrow at her. "How do you know?" he demanded.

"I've seen it," she admitted.

Gary shook his head. "This is a dangerous job, Jos...Jo," he explained in a vaguely condescending yet suggestive tone. "You shouldn't be working this type of thing alone. Hell, _**I**_ shouldn't be working this hunt alone." He leaned a little closer. "What do you say you and me hook up, work together. Watch each other's backs." The last sentence was spoken while his eyes wandered below the blonde's neckline.

Jo shook her head fervently. "Sorry Gary," she said, catching Colby's eye from where the Texan stood over at the binoculars stand and smiling to herself when he started to walk towards her and Gary. "I'm already working with someone," she informed the creep, a surprisingly pleasant feeling hitting her at the truth of her statement.

Gary followed her eyes and turned to see Colby, who stepped right past him and planted himself next to Jo. Jo grinned. "Gary, Colby. Colby, Gary."

Colby just nodded, his usual Texas charm and manners seemingly taking a brief holiday. Gary scowled back, his displeasure apparent as he glared hard at the six-foot tall cowboy. "Your Momma ain't gonna like this one bit," he growled to Jo.

"My mom!" Jo spat, suddenly remembering that despite Gary's creep factor, Ellen often threw hunts his way and so the two talked quite frequently. She was willing to bet within five minutes of the end of this conversation, her Mom would know where she was and who she was with. She huffed an angry breath, gritting her teeth. "Gary, I'm twenty-three years old! I don't give a damn what my Mom thinks!"

As much as she wished that was the truth, it wasn't. A fact she proved two seconds later by suddenly wrapping her arm around Colby, tucking herself under his shoulder as if the two were on intimate terms, and looking back at Gary. "Now if you'll excuse us," she snapped at the older man, "We have to get back to _our_ room."

_Wait 'til her Mom heard about this one._ Ellen's worst fear other than Jo hunting was Jo falling in love with a hunter. Jo was vaguely aware she was being childish but didn't really care at this moment.

Colby played along admiringly smoothly, slipping his own hand around her slim waist and grinning a little lewdly at Gary. "Oh Baby, that sounds like a great idea," he drawled to Jo, pulling her closer and smiling down at her.

Gary snorted. "You should be ashamed of yourself the way you disrespect your mother," he admonished. "Ellen's a classy broad and you don't even have the decency to call her. You're a spoilt brat Jo Harvelle, that's what you are. Always have been. Playing hunter... ha!" He gave her a nasty sneer, throwing a wary sideways glance at Colby as he did so. "Why don't you go do your hair or get your nails done, sweetheart. Like a normal girl!"

He spun on his heel and stomped angrily away, slamming the store door shut behind him.

She stared after him for a moment, stewing in an array of unpleasant feelings, when she realized suddenly she was still cuddled up to Colby, which she admitted was anything _but_ unpleasant. Before she could pull away, however, he dropped his arms from her waist and stepped back of his own accord. She smiled at him but when she noticed a slightly awkward look on his face, she quickly suggested they get back to the room to pack up for the hike to Lake Manitou.

They walked side by side across the gravel parking lot in silence although Jo got the feeling Colby wanted to say something but couldn't get up the nerve to spit it out. Not sure quite what to make of the spark she was sure had ignited between them when he had gone along with her ruse, she didn't know if she wanted him to speak up or not. He was definitely friendly towards her and had shown zero real interest in the pretty nurse Vicky at the mental institute. He had needed no coaxing to play the boyfriend in front of Gary, unlike Dean a couple of years back who had seemed annoyed at the same ruse. He had even let her drive his Mustang, usually an obvious sign of a guy's interest. Surely Colby had picked up on the same vibe she had when they'd pressed up against each other to fool Gary. She couldn't have imagined it, could she? He was probably nervous right now because he was trying to figure out how to make a move.

"Wow," Colby finally blurted out as they neared Jo's room door, an overly casual grin on his face. "With all the role-playing going on, this would be turning out to be quite a lucky day for me if I wasn't gay!"

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

_**Author's note**__: I know those of you who may have read my season 4 trilogy and know Colby already aren't surprised by his revelation, but hopefully you new readers were caight a bit off guard :) I did warn you this was not a romance *lol*_


	4. I Won't Let the Bad Monster Eat You

_**Previously**: "Wow," Colby finally blurted out as they neared Jo's room door, an overly casual grin on his face. " With all the role-playing going on, this would be turning out to be quite a lucky day for me if I wasn't gay!"_

**Chapter 4**: **I Won't Let the Bad Monster Eat You.**

Jo spun her head spun around to face Colby as they reached her room. "What? Ha ha, very funny. You're not gay!" she laughed as she unlocked the door and walked inside.

Colby snorted. "Oh I'm not, am I?" he answered back with more than a hint of sarcasm and possibly a trace of annoyance. "Well shucks, I wish somebody hadda told me that before I made out with that dude in the bar a couple of nights ago."

He held her gaze and she hesitated. He didn't look like he was kidding. "Are you really?" she stammered, suddenly feeling a bit uncomfortable and not sure whether or not to believe him. She wrinkled her forehead in scrutiny. "You're pretty convincing."

"I wasn't ever trying to convince you I was straight," he said matter-of-factly, flopping down on the end of her bed.

Jo's mind replayed the day's events, this time factoring in the gay detail. He had never said anything to the contrary. He had never hit on her. He hadn't even given her a once-over when she had been shirtless. He had been adamant Vicky wasn't his type. Girls that pretty were every guy's type - well, every straight guy anyway. He was a hunter so of course he could play any role convincingly when he had to, including that of a heterosexual. How could she have missed all that?

"So why are you telling me now?" she asked, regretting the question instantaneously as she was already fairly certain of the answer.

For the second time, Colby looked a little awkward, dipping his head enough to shield his green eyes for a brief moment with the rim of his hat. "Uh...just figured I should mention it, I guess."

_Of course you did,_ Jo thought, feeling her cheeks flush slightly. It must have been getting pretty obvious she was gaining interest and he had probably wanted to ward her off before an uncomfortable situation arose. She couldn't help feeling a wave of relief he had done so this early in the game because she'd vowed to never fall for any more unattainable guys and she had admittedly been heading quickly in that direction.

The cowboy must have sensed her discomfort for he suddenly perked up and pulled something out of the waistline of his jeans. "Hey, do you know how to use this?" He held out a GPS device with the sales sticker still on it. "Thought it might help on our hike."

"You bought a GPS?" Jo raised an eyebrow but welcomed the change of subject.

"Uh... not exactly." He was clearly trying to appear sheepish but Jo wasn't convinced he felt any remorse for the unlawful act he had apparently committed.

She laughed as she took it from his outstretched hand. "You stole it?"

"_**Borrowed**_ it," he corrected with a grin. He reached back under his shirt and pulled out a faded leather wallet, flipping through it and pulling out a driver's license. "Gary Windabugg," he read aloud. "What the Hell kind of name is that?" He pulled a decent sized wad of cash from the wallet's back fold and stuffed the money into his jeans pocket with a satisfied smirk.

"You _**'borrowed'**_ Gary's wallet?" Jo exclaimed in disbelief.

"No, that I stole. Guy was a jerk."

The blonde hunter laughed, glad every trace of the earlier awkwardness was gone. "Well, you're right about that."

Colby winked at her. "I woulda asked if you wanted me to beat him up for you but I have a feeling you coulda done that yourself," he said.

Jo felt a warm sensation loosening her nerves at the compliment to her capability and realized she was finding herself increasingly glad she had agreed to work with this guy. "You're right about that too," she replied with a satisfied smirk, deciding to overlook the fact that the hunter apparently had zero scruples when it came to personal property. She would, however, be sure to take full inventory of her gear before they parted ways.

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

It was a two-hour hike up to Lake Manitou on a narrow, rocky trail. They had loaded an armful of consecrated rounds into their packs, as well as silver bullets, holy water, salt rounds, evergreen stakes, and a machete. Jo was impressed at the well-stocked arsenal of weapons and ammunition hidden under the back seat of Colby's Mustang. She had her basic weaponry of knives, shotguns, and handguns, but usually had to scrounge together the funds for ammo as required for whatever hunt she was on. Of course, she was living within the census count, complete with job, voting rights, and a small apartment in Minnesota. As her father had done before his death sixteen years ago, she was trying to make some semblance of an honest living, hunting on the side whenever she could. Like the Winchesters, Colby had apparently been living completely off the grid for some time now, though he wasn't very forthcoming with any details of his childhood.

The hunters figured they would arrive at the lake about dusk so flashlights were also packed as the return trip would surely be in the dark. Luckily the moon was only a couple of days past full so it would provide enough light that, with the help of their newly acquired GPS, getting lost wasn't a huge concern. The trail was clearly marked and, not surprisingly as the Rangers had issued warnings to stay out of the woods, they didn't see anybody else on the way up. Colby had insisted Shelby stay behind in Jo's room as he worried about her being slightly overprotective where he was concerned and didn't want Swampy, as the monster had now been dubbed, considering his dog a tasty appetizer.

The sun was just sinking below the horizon when they arrived at the picturesque lake, dropping the temperature sharply a few degrees. They stood at the edge of the line of trees and dropped their packs at their feet.

"Think we should wait or try get his attention?" Colby deferred to Jo, much to her inward delight.

"Uh..." she thought aloud as she looked around. The area was dead quiet. They didn't even know if the beast was in the lake, after all, they just had one witness who saw one victim being dragged under the water, and Laura Grogen's story was considered suspect due to her current mental state. They could be here all night watching nothing. Even if it did show up, their chances of getting the drop on it were pretty slim here in its own terrain. "It seems to like men better," she said finally. "I say you go sit in the clearing and see if you can draw it out. I'll cover you from here; it won't be expecting two of us. When it's eying you up, I can attack from behind." She didn't like suggesting Colby be the bait, but it was the more logical plan.

Colby raised an eyebrow at her. "There you go treating me like a piece of meat again," he grinned. "I'm a human being too, ya know." He feigned a sob as he put his hand over his heart, "I have feelings."

Jo laughed. "Got any better ideas?"

Colby shook his head and started tucking various weaponry inside his jacket and jeans waistband. "Na, sounds like a plan," he shrugged, handing her the machete. "I ain't ever come across anything corporeal that can't be killed by hacking its head off," he said. "So if all else fails, you come in swingin'."

Jo smiled at him. "Don't worry," she teased, "I won't let the bad monster eat you."

She was laughing but Jo meant that statement with every fiber of her being. She had known hunters her whole life and had known many - _**too**_ many - who had died on the job. She was under no illusions this was anything but a deadly and dangerous game to be playing and had decided some time ago that no hunter was ever going down while she had their back. John Winchester had apparently let her father down in the biggest of ways and she knew firsthand the suffering of those left behind. She would never be the reason anybody else had to endure a loss like she and her Mom had and vowed no hunter would ever die on her watch.

That was, ironically, another of the reasons she usually worked alone but right now, it was the reason she knew without a doubt Colby would be walking back down that trail tonight, with or without her.

Her resolve to keep that promise was well tested less than half an hour later when a dark figure suddenly emerged, not from the lake, but from the tree line to the rear of the open area. Colby was sitting on a rock in the middle of the grassy clearing, tossing pebbles into the lake with apparent boredom, trying to goad the thing into making a speedy appearance. Jo had just been making a mental note of the general lack of patience men seem to have when she spotted it.

She swayed the branch overhead, the agreed upon signal that danger was imminent, and was relieved when Colby acknowledged the move with a slight tip of his hat. The figure stepped out of the tree line and walked boldly towards the Texan, her features clearly visible in the ample moonlight. Yes, _**her**_. It was a woman. A human. Jo hesitated, not sure what to think. The creature had taken the form of a man when entering Tom and Russ's cabin so she'd been prepared to see that shape again, but not this. Was it some kind of shapeshifter then that could take multiple forms?

Colby didn't need to be warned when it got close enough for him to make a move because it didn't seem to even be trying to sneak up on him. It, or she, was wearing a long, plain skirt and a thick, dark wool coat. Colby turned around quickly, pearl handled revolver in his hand, but didn't fire. Jo watched him hesitate as she had done, a look of confusion passing across his face.

The blonde hunter was following the plan, stealing through the trees to enter the clearing behind the creature, out of its sight. She caught Colby's eye for a fleeting instant as she emerged from the woods, subtly enough for the woman in front of him not to notice the exchange, and advanced quietly with both shotgun and machete drawn. Colby was now speaking to the woman but getting no response.

"Who are you?" he demanded. "What are you doing here?"

The woman was now five feet away from Colby and he took a step back, clearly hesitant to start shooting until he knew for sure this wasn't some spooked lady lost in the woods. It became evident this was not the case when, in the blink of an eye, she morphed into a much larger, scarier monster and lunged at the cowboy.

Jo was running by the time the shots rang out. Colby fired the iron rounds rapidly, emptying every chamber in his revolver before the creature bowled into him, screeching loudly with what was probably a mixture of pain and anger. Jo saw him twist sideways and hit the ground on a roll that allowed the his upper body to stay clear of the bulk that landed next to him with a hard, squishy thud.

Now within a narrow enough range, she fired the shotgun at its back, the buckshot sinking into its moist, leathery torso. Has she been anything less than expertly skilled with a shotgun, she would surely have sprayed her fellow hunter with stray buckshot also but her aim was the one thing Jo was sure of. She hadn't mastered every shooting video game the Roadhouse had ever had by sheer luck.

Deadly aim or not, the creature barely flinched. Jo fired one more time for the sake of it as she continued to run before pulling out the machete. Swampy was on all fours on the ground on top of Colby's legs and it roared loudly as it took a huge, heavy-handed swing at his face. He managed to dodge it by squirming his shoulders sideways and, much to Jo's relief, pulled a Glock out of the folds of his jacket and started blasting up at the creature's face.

Those were silver bullets. She knew this because they had done a complete inventory of ammo together before setting out but also because they made a different sound when being fired. Not a difference any normal person would notice, but one any decent hunter could discern instantly. However, silver or not, even at point blank range they were having very little effect.

A huge, leathery fist knocked the Glock away and slammed downwards into the cowboy's chest, eliciting a gasping wheeze of pain. It was then Jo reached the pair and swung the machete from behind, sinking it into the fold between its shoulder and its neck. She had been hoping for a clean decapitation but the creature's skin was apparently too tough for the machete to penetrate in one blow.

She yanked the blade out as the creature howled and jumped to its feet, relieving Colby from his pinned position. It spun around on Jo, lunging instantly. Unlike the last time at Tom and Russ's cabin, however, the nimble hunter managed to dodge the clawed hand that swung at her and sidestepped quickly around the beast, swinging the machete once more at its exposed neck.

Again, not enough penetration. Swampy's leathery skin was like a freaking suit of armour. A howl of pain was Jo's only reward for landing the blow and this time the machete was knocked out of her hands. She ducked under the first mighty swing with outstretched claws that were aimed at her face but was unable to avoid the backhand that caught her in the shoulder, sending her hurdling across the grass. The creature took a step towards her before stopping as Colby's form rose next to it, still breathing shallow rasps of pain but up on his knees. It turned instead towards him and swiped its clawed hand at his chest. He leaned back, the razor-sharp points just grazing the front of his shirt. He moved quickly to take advantage of the beast's overextension when it missed, ramming a wooden stake that had been stashed inside his jacket up into the soft spot under the thick, leathery arm.

Or it was supposed to be a soft spot. From where she was still scrambling to her feet, Jo could see Colby's look of frustration when the stake didn't seem to penetrate and the beast batted it away with an irritated snarl. She also saw him wince in helpless anticipation as the creature pounced forward and struck him again in the chest, this time sending him hurtling backwards ten feet only to crash into the rock he had been sitting on not five minutes ago.

Jo was on her feet now and she swooped down to snatch the machete from where it lay discarded in the grass as she ran past it. She raised it above her head and swung it as hard as she could at the creature's bulk in a smooth, sideways arc. She caught the thing on the side of the face and, much to the hunter's astonishment, it screamed and backed off a couple of steps. Jo took advantage of its obvious pain and swung again quickly. She could see Colby in the background using the rock to push himself upwards as he staggered to his feet but kept her attention focused on the creature as she struck it again and pulled the machete back for yet another go.

The reaction to her third blow was not as heartening. She got no scream of pain but instead was treated to a fierce snarl as yellow eyes flashed angrily at her. Just as she thought it was going to lunge its heavy bulk at her, she heard a loud smack and it spun away from her to reveal Colby standing behind it with the shotgun, his fists wrapped tightly around the barrel. He swung once more and again landed the butt of the weapon on the side of the creature's face. Jo followed suit quickly and swung again with the machete, landing another blow at the base of its leathery neck.

Swampy moved to lunge at Jo but stopped short, narrow slits of yellow eyes dancing back and forth warily between the two hunters on opposite sides of it as it clearly reassessed its situation. It suddenly bolted sideways, away from them both and was soon swallowed up by the darkness of the tree line.

Breathing heavily with exertion and excitement, Jo turned to Colby, who was leaning forward with his hands on his knees, his eyes still locked on the spot where the beast had just vanished. "Are you okay?" she asked, noting the smear of blood on his face and the dark stain on his chest that ran the length of the horizontal slice in his shirt.

He looked over at her and straightened up with a nod. "We leave, _**now**_," he ordered curtly, no trace of the usual humour that lurked in his eyes. Instead they were wild and worried as they scanned the grass quickly for his two handguns. He snatched them up along with his hat from where they had fallen during the fight. He gestured for her to move in the direction of the trail as he slapped the Stetson back on his bleeding head and threw another look back at the tree line.

Jo didn't need to be told twice and made no objection to his commanding tone. She jogged to keep ahead of his swift stride and they each grabbed a pack when they reached the top of the trail and wordlessly started back down towards the lodge. Colby ushered her in front of him and they both kept stealing wary glances backwards as they practically ran in the pale moonlight.

It was twenty minutes before they slowed the pace enough that Jo could manage to speak through her panting. "Think it's coming after us?" she ventured, sparing a glance back at Colby. He seemed angry as his shoulders were stiff despite the movement of jogging and his brow was wrinkled into a frown beneath the rim of his hat.

He glanced up at her and flashed her an unconvincing smile. "Probably not, but we'd better keep moving just in case."

"I'm sorry, Colby," she offered, this time not looking back at him.

"Sorry? What the Hell for?" He sounded genuinely taken aback.

"I had three clear swings at Swampy's neck and I couldn't cut its head off," she answered, shaking her head with disgust.

"Are you kidding me?" Colby guffawed, the friendly tone creeping back into his voice. "Schwarzenegger himself couldn't have beheaded that thing! I shot half a clip of silver bullets into it at point blank range and when it came at me, I could see them stuck in its face and throat. They got lodged in its skin. No way a friggin' machete was gonna do the trick, man."

Jo soaked up his words with relief. She could admit she was self-conscious about hand to hand combat occurrences with supernatural fuglies because as a petite female, it was an unarguable fact that she lacked the upper body strength her male counterparts possessed. She tried to make up for it with speed, skill and foresight but there were always going to be instances when she felt inferior and a potential liability. Yet another reason she usually hunted alone.

"The only thing you did wrong today was trust my instincts instead of your own," Colby added, eliciting a questioning glance from the blonde hunter jogging in front of him.

His tone clearly self-admonishing, Colby continued. "I'm the one who screwed up here," he said through heavy breaths of exertion. "We really didn't have a sure-fire way of killin' this thing and it was plain stupid for me to suggest we come all the way up here unprepared. You knew better but I had to go and be all macho and hotheaded."

"Hey, we're fine," Jo pointed out. "Few cuts and bruises is all."

"I'm just used to hunting alone is all," he said, sounding apologetic. "Doesn't really matter if I do something stupid if it's just me that's gonna pay for it. I just wasn't thinking."

"I agreed to come," Jo appeased, trying to take her share of the blame as it was clear Colby was angry at himself. "So it was a dumb move on both our parts." She was disheartened by his comment implying his life didn't matter and found it sad that he would think that way. So far he had seemed so well-adjusted and confident, everything she wished she was.

"Yeah, well, I tell you what. I'll promise to try an' be a little less reckless next time if you promise to stop worryin' about what other people think. Next time don't doubt yourself. You don't need to prove anything to anybody, Jo. I learned that a while back and life's been a lot simpler since."

Jo was silent as they continued their fast pace down the trail, contemplating his last words. He was right. She had done things his way because she was afraid he would think her a coward. And his way had in fact, been a reckless and foolhardy move.

Lesson learned. She filed the thought away in her mind's vault, hoping she would be able to pull it back out it next time she was doubting her judgment as a hunter.

"So you put up quite a fight with Zena back there," she said finally, turning her head to flash Colby a smile. "I thought you were a goner a couple of times."

"Hmph," the cowboy scoffed, his dimpled grin returning. "That was more like foreplay. Growing up where I did, it was pretty much fight or die."

That was the first tidbit of personal information the hunter had given her since they had met, not counting the fact that he preferred men. Jo's curiosity was piqued and she pounced on it. "So where did you grow up?" she asked.

Colby thickened his accent to a ridiculously sarcastic drawl. "I'll give you one guess."

"I meant _**where**_ in Texas," she huffed indignantly.

"West Dallas mostly," was his evasive reply. "So your dad was a hunter, huh? What about your Mom?"

Jo let out a groan, expressing her distaste for the new topic of conversation but, try as she might, she was unable to steer the subject back to Colby and ended up telling him all about her parents and her upbringing at the Roadhouse. Colby seemed particularly amused with her stories about Ash, especially those involving the wild schemes of rebellion during his heavy conspiracy theory phase. Jo neglected to mention much about her current relationship, or lack thereof, with her mother, though all her talk of family had Ellen dominating her thoughts by the time they made it back to her room at the lodge.

Which is why it was quite a surprise when she answered a knock at the door half an hour later to find her Mom standing there.

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

_**Author's Note: **Yay, Ellen's finally here. Unfortunatley, Jo's not happy about it. Hope you're enjoying so far. Thanks for reading :)_


	5. I Don't Need Your Help

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_**Previously**__: Which is why it was quite a surprise when she answered a knock at the door half an hour later to find her Mom standing there._

**Chapter 5**: **I Don't Need Your Help**

"Mom, what are you doing here?" Jo stammered in surprise.

"Nice to see you too, Joanna Beth."

_Sarcasm already. This wasn't gonna go well_. "You didn't exactly call ahead," she fired back, still standing firmly in the doorway.

"Would you have answered your phone?"

_Okay, her Mom had her there_. She took a slow breath and reigned in the defensiveness that seemed to instinctively arise where her mother was present. Maybe if she didn't act like a rebellious teenager, her mother wouldn't treat her like one. Maybe Ellen wasn't here to nag her into quitting hunting. Maybe she should give her the benefit of the doubt.

"Is there something wrong?" she asked with genuine concern, suddenly realizing her mother could be here to bear more bad news concerning people Jo cared about. Ash was dead, Dean was dead, Matt was dead, Sam was MIA. There weren't many left on the list.

Ellen's face softened and Jo couldn't help but notice the look of relief at the removal of the belligerence from the younger Harvelle's tone. "Can I come in?" her mother asked politely.

Jo shrugged but nodded, stepping back and pulling the door open. When Ellen moved into the room, her eyes fell immediately on the man standing a few paces behind the door, shotgun in one hand and three-foot long sword in the other. Having watched Swampy turn into both a man and a woman on two separate occasions, neither hunter had taken it for granted that whoever was knocking wasn't actually the monster returning for another round. Colby was just lowering both weapons as Jo closed the door behind her mother.

Jo watched Ellen closely and noticed the observant woman take note of the one bed and two duffels on the small dresser but didn't feel any need to correct her wrong assumption. She wasn't a little kid anymore and who she was or wasn't sleeping with was definitely not her mother's business.

"This must be Colby," Ellen said in an admirably neutral tone. Jo cursed Gary under her breath. She'd been right; he hadn't lasted five friggin' minutes.

"Uh, yes Mam," Colby answered politely, tipping his hat in her direction but looking slightly uncomfortable. Shelby never budged from her curled up position on Jo's bed, though one blue eye tracked Ellen's every move.

"Well, Colby, do you mind if my daughter and I have a little privacy?"

Colby threw a glance in Jo's direction but was already reaching for his coat as he nodded. "No, Ma..."

"No," Jo cut him off, holding her hand up to still him. "Mom, whatever you have to say you can say it in front of him. This is _**my**_ room."

Ellen pursed her lips and gave Jo a long, hard look. Jo returned the hard stare, determined not to back down. Ellen had seldom won a staring showdown with her daughter since Jo had turned fifteen and today was no different. She finally released a long sigh before speaking directly to Jo, apparently choosing to ignore Colby altogether. The unfortunate cowboy desperately looked like he wanted to be anywhere _**but**_ caught in the middle between these two but Jo noticed thankfully that he backed her play and made no move to leave.

"I hear you've got a possible Wendigo on your hands," Ellen said calmly.

Jo shook her head. "I told Gary it wasn't a Wendigo."

"He said you saw it." The edge of fear in Ellen's voice at the mere thought of her daughter in such close proximity to this monster, whatever it turned out to be, was unmistakable.

"Yeah, we both did," Jo answered, indicating Colby also. "We figured it may live in Manitou Lake so we hiked up there and went a few rounds with it."

"Did you kill it?"

"Not yet. We're not sure how to take it out yet. Look, Mom, did you really come here to discuss a case or is there another reason?"

"I came to help...wait, if you don't know how to kill it, what the Hell were you doing up at Manitou Lake confronting it?"

Jo suddenly felt like a child getting scolded and all of her defenses flared to full strength. It was Colby, however, that answered her Mom.

"Uh, that was my fault. Jo actually..."

"You stay out of this!" Ellen snapped, raising a finger in the air at Colby and turning back towards her daughter.

"Yes Mam," Colby backed down quickly.

Jo threw him a traitorous look. Not two hours ago this guy had attacked a giant leather monster head on and now he was afraid to stand up to her Mom? She remembered the exact same reaction from Dean Winchester as well as many other hunters over the years. What was so damn intimidating about Ellen Harvelle that brave, stoic hunters would quiver in their boots if she so much as glared at them? And why the Hell couldn't Jo manage to pull off the same effect?

Ellen was still staring at Jo expectantly and the younger hunter folded her arms across her chest in defiance. "Colby and I can work this case by ourselves, Mom. We're fine. Go back home."

Ellen sighed. "I haven't had a home since the Roadhouse burnt down, Joanna Beth," she said more quietly, her shoulders slumping slightly as her anger dissipated. "There's nothing left there for me now."

Jo felt a sudden lump in her throat at her mother's tired and unexpected words but remained quiet. Ellen looked slightly ashamed at the personal admission with company in the room and threw a sharp look at Colby.

"How long you been huntin' son?" she asked him, her bossy tone returning instantly.

"Since I was a kid," he answered, clearly uncomfortable the conversation had shifted in his direction. "My Dad was a hunter. But I've been at it full time since I was seventeen."

"And that was what, two years ago?" Ellen retorted, making no effort to hide the disapproval or the sarcasm.

"Goin' on seven now," Colby corrected, not seeming offended.

"Who's your Daddy?"

Jo resisted a chuckle at her mother's phrasing, knowing it would only antagonize the stubborn woman. She felt bad for letting Colby squirm but had needed a minute to recover from the hurt and sad look in her Mom's eyes when she had said she had no home.

"Wyatt Hutchins," Colby answered obediently, though with a definite flinch.

Jo was snapped out of her bout of pity when she saw her mother's eyes narrow sharply at Colby's revelation. She certainly didn't look pleased and was clearly about to let Colby hear about it. Jo decided it was time she interceded. She'd never heard of Wyatt Hutchins, but she didn't care if Colby was the direct descendent of Adolf fucking Hitler; that had no bearing on who he was. It had taken her a long time to realize you can't hold kids responsible for the actions of their parents. She'd made that mistake once before and it had probably cost her two wonderful friendships as she saw very little of Sam and Dean after that.

"Okay, Mom, the inquisition's over. _**I**_ choose who I hunt with. I don't need you interviewing them for me. Leave him alone."

"Fine," Ellen conceded, turning back to Jo. "Gary says he's sure it's a Wendigo."

"And you're taking Gary's word over mine?" Jo was incredulous.

"No, of course not," Ellen argued. "But so far, Gary's word's all I got. You don't talk to me, remember?"

"Now you can see why!"

"All I'm asking is to know you're alright and see what information you've got so far on the case." Ellen was clearly struggling to keep her tone even and not raise it to match Jo's. "Maybe I can help."

Jo clenched her teeth. Why did she always feel like the kid when her Mom was around? How old did she have to be for that to stop? "No, Mom," she said finally, deciding she needed to do this hunt without parental guidance. "I can do this by myself. I don't need your help. I'm a grown-up, in case you hadn't noticed."

Ellen gave her a long, hard stare before throwing a quick glance in Colby's direction. "Pretty hard not to," was all she said as she stepped towards the door. As she opened it she turned back to her daughter. "I didn't come to tell you what to do, Jo," she said quietly. "I just thought I could help out a little. I've got a room at the Meadow Lake Motel in Highgate. Maybe you could drop by and we could catch up a bit before you leave town." She turned to leave again. "After you finish your hunt, that is," she added before shutting the door behind her with a barely audible click.

Jo stared quietly at the closed door for a moment, several emotions battling for dominance within her spinning head right now. Guilt seemed to be the one coming out on top, which was surprising, because that wasn't one she usually associated with her mother. There was anger and frustration as well as love and admiration, but she had never felt sorry for her mother and had never felt guilty about leaving until now. But her mother had never appeared sad - until now.

But then again, Jo admonished herself, she had barely seen her mother since she had taken off over a year and a half ago to hunt, free from the woman's 'oppressive rules' and 'unrealistic over-precaution'. That was before the Roadhouse burned down. That was before Ash had died. The last time Jo had actually seen her mother was a year ago, when she had returned home for Ash's salt and burn. It occurred to her she had no idea how her Mom was really doing. Maybe she wasn't faring as well as Jo had imagined. Maybe she wasn't as tough and indomitable as the young hunter had always thought her to be.

She forced her thoughts back to the current situation and turned towards Colby. "Okay, it's almost midnight. That thing's probably gonna strike again tonight but we have no idea where or what it is or how to kill it," she said, shelving the Mom issue for later. "Got any ideas?"

Colby shrugged. "You can check back online adding in the tidbit about the lake and the yellow eyes. Maybe that'll pop something up." He dug his cell phone out of his pocket and flipped it open. "I'm gonna call Rufus," he announced, dialing a number. "He just plain knows everything."

Jo listened with interest to the audible side of the conversation between Colby and Rufus. She'd certainly heard of Rufus Turner but hadn't heard anything good. He was known to be antisocial, even by hunter standards, and rarely helped anybody out anymore. She was curious to know why he would help out Colby. The conversation certainly seemed friendly, even ending with a "You take care too, old man," from the cowboy as he hung up smiling.

"How do you know Rufus?" she asked before he could say anything.

"He knew my parents," was all Colby offered before informing her what Rufus had suggested they do with regards to the hunt.

"He says to go see Arvin Biendker...something or other. He's a Professor of Anthropology and History at Bennington College. Says he's got all kinds of lore on mythical creatures and Rufus vaguely recalls him yammering about a swampy one some years back."

"Do you do any research yourself?" Jo snorted. "Or do you just call Rufus whenever you run out of leads?"

Colby chuckled. "I do the interviews and the poking around," he admitted, "But when it comes to the library thing or the boring web searches, I let him do all the work. Trust me, he knows more than you can ever find out online anyway. Like I said, he knows friggin' everything."

"Okay, we can't go tonight," Jo stated the obvious. "So first thing in the morning?"

"Sounds like a plan," nodded Colby, not moving from where he sat on the end of her bed.

"Well," Jo laughed, "Are you gonna get a room of your own or what?"

Colby raised an eyebrow. "Well, I was kinda figuring you'd let me crash right here," he pointed to the floor with a lopsoded grin.

Jo's normal reaction would be to laugh in a guy's face at such a shameless ruse but she really had no basis of argument with Colby. It wasn't like he was going to be making a move on her.

"I suppose," she chuckled, pulling out her laptop to have another look around online. "As long as you don't snore."

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It was an hour's drive to Bennington College. Jo hadn't argued Colby's suggestion to take the Mustang though this time he insisted on driving. She was relieved he hadn't mentioned her mother's visit last night; she really hadn't sorted through her feelings about that yet and didn't want to talk about it. When she grumbled as they pulled into the campus, however, he did ask if she'd been to college.

"Yeah," she admitted. "I lasted one semester. I hated it there. The girls in the dorm were such shallow and catty bitches."

Colby laughed. "I take it you didn't fit in then?"

"Not at all. They thought I was a freak. My roommate told the whole floor about my knife collection and they pretty much stopped talking to me."

"Like I told you before," Colby declared, "You put too much stock into what other people think."

"They reported me to the dorm monitor who tried to confiscate my knives," Jo explained "No way were they gettin' my knife." She shifted in her seat subconsciously to feel the comfort of the knife at the small of her back, the one she never went anywhere without, the one with her father's initials carved into the blade.

Colby just chuckled and parallel parked in front of a Prius.

Even though it was Saturday, the campus was fairly busy with the various summer activities. Professor Biendkerheim was, thankfully, in his office, saving the hunters the need to track him down at home and come up with an excuse of why this couldn't wait until Monday.

They claimed to be students at the University of Vermont working on a project on local tales and legends involving mythological creatures. They parried back and forth effortlessly as they recounted the completely false story about having interviewed an elderly gentleman in Granby who swore such a creature existed. They described everything they knew so far about Swampy, hoping the facts would ring a bell with the Professor.

Jo was impressed and admittedly surprised at how well Colby managed to pull off being a Vermont college student. His usual Texan slang all but disappeared and his drawl lessened to a slightly southern twang. Even more so, she was delighted at how well they worked together and how convincing they were. She found herself realizing she could really get used to this having a partner thing - it certainly did make many aspects of the job a lot easier, from the cons to the research and especially the fights.

The professor was more than willing to help them, excited about it actually. As Rufus had told Colby, the man certainly was passionate about the subject and would do all he could to point them in the right direction.

Unfortunately, that direction was the campus library, which was closed to students on the weekends for the summer, especially students from other schools. The Professor showed them some articles on various creatures he had in his office, none of which matched Swampy. He insisted, however, that there was such a creature that fit their description perfectly, but the only detailed account of it he was aware of was contained in a book that was currently in the library.

"Why don't you come back Monday?" he suggested apologetically. "The library will be open by then."

"Can't you get in there on the weekend sir?" Colby asked politely.

"Well, yes, but I'm afraid I wouldn't be able to take you in with me," he replied, "And I can't give you the book without you having properly checked it out, you understand."

Jo was about to press the issue, maybe guilt or sweet-talk the professor into helping them, but Colby let him off the hook.

"Not a problem, we understand. We'll definitely come back Monday. What was the name of the book again?"

The professor told them and they thanked him again before leaving. Once outside, Jo turned to Colby. "You know we can't wait until Monday," she chided.

Colby grinned. "Of course not," he held up a small square object and winked at her. "The professor was kind enough to lend us his keycard."

"Oh my God, you just can't help yourself, can you?" Jo laughed in disbelief. "It's like working with John Dillinger. So you wanna do it now?"

Colby shrugged. "May as well. And I hope you mean Martin Sheen's Dillinger and not that pansy Johnny Depp."

Sneaking into the closed library using the stolen keycard proved to be trickier than the hunters originally anticipated. Students not being allowed in there meant they couldn't be seen and there was a stern-looking librarian sitting at the check-out desk just inside the glass doors. Colby agreed to create the distraction for Jo to slip inside and find the book.

They headed over to the security building where the cowboy was inside for no more than thirty seconds before walking back out with a security guard uniform. By this point, Jo wasn't surprised but she did have to struggle to stifle a laugh while Colby, wearing his stolen uniform, argued with the stubborn librarian, trying to convince her of his ruse to get her away from the door for twenty seconds so Jo could slip inside with the Professor's keycard. It took him several minutes and he was clearly getting frustrated but eventually, it worked and the coast was cleared for Jo.

It was obvious creating a second diversion using the security guard hoax was never going to work so when Jo called to say she had the book in hand, Colby had to pull the fire alarm. She waited for the few staff members in the library to leave before slipping out herself and headed back to the Mustang. They hopped in and roared back onto the highway.

She flipped quickly through the book as Colby drove and gasped at the illustration at the start of chapter six. It was Swampy, to a tee.

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_**Author's note**__: I realize the entire story has been Jo's POV so far, but I will add some of Ellen's a little later on as she gets more involved. Sorry this chapter didn't have a whole lot of action, I promise I'll make up for it in the next one._


	6. Sounds Like A Plan

_**Previously**__: She flipped quickly through the book as Colby drove and gasped at the illustration at the start of chapter six. It was Swampy to a tee._

_**Author's note**__: Now kids, just because Jo and Colby did it doesn't mean it's all right to steal books from the library. I'm sure Jo will return the book after the hunt is over so that other hunters may benefit from its teachings :-) *lol* _

_Sorry it took me over a week to post this chap, RL - it can be so inconvenient sometimes! Iron Angel, thanks for the heads up, I have fixed the song the pair are listening to._

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**Chapter 6**** - ****Sounds Like a Plan**

_( - - - More than a Feeling by Boston, playing on car stereo - - - )_

Jo was having a good day. Despite the unresolved issues that had been brought to the surface by her mother's visit last night, the young hunter was in high spirits. The Vermont scenery between Bennington and Highgate was green and picturesque, something she rarely took note of, but today she was enjoying the bright sun and the warm air rushing in the windows of the Mustang as it purred its way along the highway. She read passages and excerpts out loud from the book they had stolen from the library to her friend and hunting partner and the pair both wholeheartedly agreed that this was their Swampy. Hunting partner ... she was really liking the sound of that.

"So the book says Swampy is a Nokken," she told Colby, "Which it a mythological creature from Norwegian folklore. But there isn't just one Nokken like people tend to think and like all that crap online was saying; they're an ancient species that reproduces." She read further. "Or more like multiplies," she corrected. "Says here they used to be human just like Wendigos, but are turned into the Nokken by a poisonous bite from another Nokken."

"We even researched this thing online last night," Jo added in disbelief, shaking her head, "But every website described it a different way and none of them matched our guy."

That was the trouble with the web; too much misinformation floating around. Jo had found the research part of any hunt far more difficult the past year without Ash to call for help. Colby thought Rufus knew everything but he'd never met Ash. She smiled to herself in fond memory of her best friend and honorary big brother. Jo was willing to bet Ash would have made Rufus look like a first grader at show and tell. It was thanks to years of tutelage from the eccentric genius that Jo was meticulous in her research methods and extremely thorough, going over and over any information she picked up to establish what she could take as fact and what she could discard as useless. Last night's search had turned up nothing with enough similarities to Swampy to be even considered a viable possibility.

She skimmed the pages of the book, a republication by an author from the early nineteen hundreds, and soaked up all the information. "Hey, we may be right about it going mainly for men," she said, "Apparently the Nokken admire strong fighters - warrior types."

Colby nodded. "That explains why it went for you then, and not for Laura Grogen."

Jo hid her smile at the compliment and kept reading. "They roam between rivers, lakes, and even the sea and come topside every thirty years or so to feed, usually on people," she continued. "And they're shapeshifters who use human forms to lure in their prospective meals, but their true form is hideous with moist, leathery skin, yellow eyes, and big pointy teeth."

"That book describes Swampy better'n his own Mama could," Colby grinned back at her. "S'gotta be him. Or her, I guess. Does it have anything in there about how to kill it?"

"Well, contrary to some of the more popular folklore, it says that saying its name out loud if it captures you won't do squat," Jo replied, scanning the pages. "But the Viking legends say that when a Nokken showed up and start killing the Vikings, the people called Thor for help, their God of Thunder and Lightning, who struck the Nokken with a lightning bolt. Apparently this stunned the thing long enough for the people to cut its heart out, which is the only way to kill it."

"So we taser the prick," Colby summarized.

"Makes sense," Jo agreed. "It's a water monster; that can't mix well with electricity. And while it's down, we can cut its heart out."

"Worth a shot, but in case the book's wrong," Colby raised a cautious eyebrow, clearly remembering the last time they went after it. "Is there a back-up plan in there?"

Jo kept reading. She didn't want a repeat of their close call up at the lake either, so a '_just incase_' or even an '_if all else fails_' last resort would be a comfort if they were to face this thing again.

"Says here they don't like fire," she continued, "But that they're immune to small doses because it gets extinguished by the moisture in their skin."

"That explains why the flare guns didn't work."

"Yep," Jo agreed, remembering also the sizzling sound she had heard when she'd aimed her blow-torch at the Nokken after it had attacked Tom and Russ.

"Trillium acts as an antidote to their poison if they bite you," she read on.

Colby scrunched up his face. "I got a little bit of that in my stash but not much," he told her, a grin spreading over his face as he explained its use. "I use it mixed with a few other things to keep vampires from gettin' wind of my manly stench."

Jo laughed. "I thought vampires were extinct," she argued.

The cowboy shook his head. "So did most hunters," he said. "I think they almost were here in the U.S. but it seems they're making quite the comeback. After all, it only takes one to turn a hundred."

Jo halted her next question about the particulars of turning a vampire when the news broadcaster on the radio said something that caught her attention. She gasped and turned the volume up.

"…_**..**__twenty-seven year old man went missing from the parking lot of the Big Buck Hunting Cabins and Lodge ten miles out of Highgate Falls on Highway 78. He was last seen leaving the main lodge just after midnight but never reached his room just two hundred yards away. Acquaintances of the man swear he is not the type to go wandering off. The area has been plagued recently with a string of suspected bear attacks, though no evidence has yet been found of the bear in question. Police and Forestry Officials have issued a warning for people to stay out of the woods in the surrounding area until the viscous animal is captured and put down, but the police have not ruled out foul play of the human variety in this latest disappearance. In other news, commuters will be paying more at the pumps come Friday as petroleum prices have__**..…**__" _

Jo reached back out and turned the radio down. "God, it came right to the lodge," she breathed. "We were right there and didn't..." Her words hitched when a stab of fear shot through her as she realized her mother had left her room alone not half an hour before this man had gone missing.

"Swampy's gettin' bolder with nobody goin' in the woods," Colby nodded with a grimace. He looked in her direction and gave her a nudge with his elbow, misreading her look of fear and guilt. "Hey, you couldn't have known. That guy dyin' ain't on us."

"I know, I know," she agreed, exhaling with relief Swampy's latest victim had been a stranger and not her Mom. "I just hate it when I don't get the monster in time, ya know?"

Colby responded with a knowing nod. Every hunter hated that. Whether they were sport hunters or lifers, revenge seekers or thrill seekers, novices or seasoned veterans, it was their universal goal to prevent any more deaths from the moment they hit town. To be on the job and still have the monster killing people meant you were losing. All hunters hated losing.

"I say we scoot on up to one of the cabins up in the woods, light a fire in the fireplace, make some noise, and hope Swampy comes knockin' on our door tonight," Colby suggested.

"Yeah, the lodge closed those cabins until the bear attacks stop so there won't be anybody else there," Jo said, this time in total agreement with his suggestion. "Hopefully this Nokken will try its familiar haunts before heading closer to civilization to find its next meal. He seems to be sticking to that area.

"If he sees we're there, he'll probably stop and try to eat us before heading any closer to town," the Cowboy added.

"Sounds like a plan," Jo confirmed, allowing herself a chuckle at how absurd Colby's last sentence had sounded even though it was spoken with complete sincerity.

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It was a given they were going to take Jo's Jeep up to the remote cabins as there was no way in Hell the Texan was going to drive his Mustang up the two mile rough and rugged track. As he phrased it, "Paul friggin' Walker could be standin' here shirtless thumbin' for a lift up there and I still wouldn't do it."

Jo laughed. "Seriously?" she teased. "That's your type? I would have pegged you for more the Jason Statham or the Alexander Skarsgard bad-boy type."

"No, Darlin', that would be _**your**_ type," he replied with a snort and an eye roll. She didn't argue that point, knowing her past history would only prove it to be true.

Between them they had three stun guns, all of which were fully charged and carefully checked. They were, unfortunately, not of the Taser variety, on which the electrodes were mounted on the ends of two wires that could be fired at the target from a short distance away. Their stun guns would require direct physical contact with Swampy's leathery hide. The plus side to these types of guns, however, was that they could be used multiple times without having to recoil the electrode wires between uses.

Colby brought out his sword again, insisting it would do more damage than the machete from their previous attempt. It was an impressive double-edged broadsword with a three-foot blade and one-handed cruciform with a silver pommel. Strange symbols Jo didn't recognize were carved along both sides of the smooth blade. Having a keen interest in anything with a sharp edge and a pointy tip, Jo asked him where he got it but he simply replied with a shrug. "Gift," was all he said.

"A gift like the GPS was a gift?" she pressed, her voice laden with sarcasm.

"No, a real gift," he said, much more quietly before mumbling something about Shelby needing to pee again and heading quickly outside with the dog.

Jo pulled out an assortment of knives, trying to decide which ones would be the best to cut through the leathery skin and separate the Nokken from its heart, which was supposedly the only way to kill it. She had almost her whole collection spread out on the bed when Colby came back inside. He stopped short with raised eyebrows and let out a quiet whistle.

"Goddang, you weren't kidding when you said you had a knife collection!" he remarked, coming around to the side of the bed to admire them more closely.

Jo laughed, not embarrassed for once. This was exactly why she preferred the company of hunters. She spent the next fifteen minutes running through her inventory with Colby, explaining where she'd acquired each piece and what she, or more often the knife's previous owner, had killed with each one. Colby was attentive and seemed sincerely impressed and Jo found herself beaming with pride by the time she finished. The cowboy picked up an eighteen-inch gruesomely vicious looking dagger with a gnarled dragon's head on its hilt and a sinister doubly-serrated blade.

"And you wonder why your little college dorm bunnies were a might nervous!" he laughed, twirling the heavy blade around with some obvious skill.

Jo snorted. "It's not like I kept that one in the room," she defended, not minding the friendly tease. She snatched the knife back in mid-air, giving it an equally flashy spin and flaunting her own skill before deftly sliding it back in its sheath with a saucy grin.

The only knife she didn't pull out was the iron one she kept at the small of her back. Colby wasn't the only one not willing to share everything.

They decided on six of the sharper knives and set about to sharpen them further. Not that any were ever allowed to dull, as Jo was meticulous about keeping them weapon-ready, but Swampy's hide had already been proven to withstand silver bullets, so there wasn't any such thing as too sharp as far as the hunters were concerned.

They set off just after dusk, taking care not to attract the attention of any nosy lodge patrons as they left the parking lot to head up the trail to the cabins, which had been ruled strictly off limits for fear of law suits should any more people go missing or die on the lodge's property. Jo parked at the end of the trail, hiding the Wagoneer in the trees just off the track, as she had done the last time. They decided on the closest cabin, which was about two hundred yards away from the Jeep and only fifty yards from the charred remains of Tom and Russ's cabin.

They loaded themselves up with the gear and weapons and trudged over to the one-room cabin where they got to work quickly setting up their defenses. Jo had suggested they place piles of brush around the perimeter just in case things were going badly and they needed to start a fire or fires big enough to scare the creature away so they could make it back to the Jeep. They did just that and Colby doused each one with gasoline so they would ignite quickly.

The hunters were just lighting the kindling in the fireplace inside to let the creature know they were here when they heard the sound of a small engine approaching.

"Dang," Colby muttered, heading to the window. "That's probably the Rangers. They're gonna make us leave for sure."

They could make out the single headlight of a dirt bike that drove right by the Jeep at the end of the trail and made its way across the clearing to their cabin. As the lone rider pulled up to the porch front step, Jo let out a groan.

"It's not a Ranger," she said with a frustrated sigh. "That's Gary."

"Gary from the store Gary?" Colby grimaced. "Thanks-for-the-cash-but-you're-a-douche Gary?"

"That'd be the one," Jo nodded as the man took off his helmet, tucking it under his arm and hoisting up the duffel on his back as he made his way up the front steps to knock on the door.

Jo groaned again but went to answer it.

"Hi Gary," she said as she pulled it open, not bothering to hide her annoyance at his arrival.

"Hey there Josie," Gary greeted her with what closely resembled a sneer. "Looks like you and me got the same idea."

"We got this one covered, Slick," Colby interceded, planting himself firmly in front of the smaller man. "I hear there's a meadow nymph in New Hampshire that might need seein' to. Why don't you go take care of that?"

Gary seemed unfazed and he simply shrugged and sidled past the cowboy, ignoring the warning growl from the husky at Colby's feet. "I've been workin' this Wendigo for four days," he said flatly. "I aim to be here to take the sonofabitch down."

"It's not a Wendigo, Gary," Jo snapped. "I already told you that!"

Gary dropped his duffel on one of the bunks. "Don't worry, Josie," he said, rooting through it and pulling out a shotgun. "I brought a whole selection of weapons, just in case you're right."

"What do you mean _**just in case**_?" Jo narrowed her eyes at the older man. "I _**know**_ I'm right."

Gary dropped himself heavily into one of the chairs at the small, wooden table. "Well I'm not going anywhere," he said steadily. "So if you have extra information on this thing, I suggest you let me in on it before it shows up."

Jo just scowled and continued to glare angrily at the newcomer, but it was Colby who conceded. The Texan started explaining all they knew of the Nokken, though his voice held none of its usual friendly tone. Jo understood why he had given in and was sharing the information; she had grown up around hunters and knew their unwritten rules and etiquette. Whether they liked Gary or not, he was safer if he was properly prepared so they would make sure he knew all that they did about how to kill this thing. Jo tossed the book they had stolen from the University on the table in front of him with a loud thud.

The hours spent waiting for Swampy to show up dragged excruciatingly slowly. Conversations with Gary were forced and brusque and mainly centered around hunting. There was none of the friendly chitchat and banter Jo and Colby had enjoyed throughout the day. Even the poker game was fairly quiet and serious. Of course, that didn't stop Jo from cleaning up. She had always been able to beat Gary and she found Colby to be a surprisingly naive player who seemed to fall for every bluff she pulled. She did find it particularly satisfying, however, that it was actually Gary's money she was winning from both the men at the table since Colby was playing with the cash he had stolen from the older hunter anyway.

Since Gary didn't have a stun gun on him, he was given Jo's spare so they each had one. By two o'clock in the morning, all three hunters were getting worried Swampy either wasn't on the prowl that night or worse, had skipped them over and gone hunting closer to town, picking from the townspeople unfortunate enough to appear on tonight's menu.

Their worries were appeased quite suddenly, however, when Shelby growled and Gary shushed the younger hunters from where he sat by the window, peering through a crack in the curtains and squinting to see into the darkness. In order to give them the appearance of unsuspecting victims, they had left the light on in the cabin and the woodsmoke drifting out of the chimney. The down side to that play was not being able to see the enemy coming.

"I think I see a man walking this way," Gary rasped, reaching instinctively for his pistol.

Jo instantly tensed and shifted into hunting mode. Her heart sped up and she could feel the adrenaline pumping through her as she grabbed one of the knives and her stun gun, every muscle in her body poised and ready to spring into action. She wordlessly moved to Gary's right flank as the older hunter had already positioned himself in the point position, front and center, right in front of the door.

"Shelby, back," Colby ordered the dog, who obediently moved to the rear of the cabin, the hair on her haunches standing on end. Jo noticed Colby's face betray a brief glimpse of annoyance at Gary as he positioned himself on the older hunter's left flank before looking her way and giving her a concerned but encouraging nod. She nodded in return, indicating she was ready when there came three sharp knocks on the door.

Nobody moved. Nobody even breathed. The next few seconds seemed to hover in mid-air, passing in slow-motion as the three taut hunters stood primed and ready to fight. Finally, the door handle latch lifted and the wooden door swung open slowly, revealing a stocky man in a heavy, dark coat. Jo instantly recognized him as the form the Nokken had taken the night it killed Tom and Russ.

Getting a good look at him in the light, however, was disconcerting because he looked decidedly _**human**_. A pleasant, young man's face looked right at Gary and smiled.

Colby moved first. Jo saw him step forward with his stun gun drawn to move next to Gary, who asked sharply, "Is that him?"

She was jolted into action by the question, a hundred thoughts going through her mind. Of course Gary was hesitating; he hadn't seen the creature in human form before and needed reassurance it wasn't a real human before he could attack. Why then had he taken point? Why had they let him? Following Colby's lead, she realized it would be a wiser move to simply launch her own attack than to waste time trying to answer Gary .

She and the Texan came at the newcomer from opposite sides. The man stepped back quickly and, with blurring speed, morphed into the creature they had dubbed Swampy, its arms swinging upwards in two wide arcs that knocked both outstretched stun guns aside.

It followed up the move quickly with a club-like fist that struck Jo on the left shoulder. The pain hadn't hit her yet but she felt herself lifting off the ground as she saw the monster deliver a heavy backhand that landed squarely in Gary's chest. The next few seconds were a blur and, even though she tried to brace herself as best as she could, she struck the cabin wall with a jarring smack before tumbling to the floor.

As she scrambled to her feet, she let out a cry of pain when she tried to move her left arm. Fairly certain the shoulder was dislocated, she felt a brief moment of relief both that she was right-handed and that her right fist still had a tight grip on the stun gun. She looked over at the doorway to just in time to see Colby, already bleeding from the nose, take a powerful hit to the side of the head that sent him reeling backwards into the cabin's wooden table.

Barely steadying herself first, she ran forward with the stun gun. This time she managed to get close enough to Swampy, whose attention was focused back on Gary, to ram the electrodes into its side and press the trigger. The scruffy, older hunter had lost his grip on his borrowed stun gun and was now firing his 9mm at Swampy's face from where he lay on the floor at the its feet. Hit with the bullets and about 500,000 volts at the same time, Swampy jerked and screamed as it took a step backwards, swinging its powerful arm at Jo in the process.

Having to recoil to avoid being thrown across the room again, Jo kept her hand on her weapon, breaking its contact with the tough, leathery skin. She was disappointed the voltage had only been delivered for a second or so, as it didn't seem to have neutralized the creature. At least, not sufficiently that they could get close enough to cut its heart out.

Gary was still shooting when Swampy rebounded and lunged forward again, rage evident in its grotesque, leathery face. It ignored the female hunter to its side and went directly for the man shooting at it, moving right into the noisy stream of bullets as it snarled in fury and once again pulled back its mighty fist to strike. Jo could see Colby approaching from the other side but he was still a few steps away. She jabbed desperately at the creature, shoving the stun gun in its side and pressing the trigger.

It flinched and jerked away, but not before slamming its clawed hand down into Gary's stomach, ripping open a fist-sized hole as it did so. As it wrenched itself back from the crackling source of pain, Jo was horrified to see red and bloody bits of Gary's insides dangling from its clenched fingers.

Nevertheless, she stood firm and didn't release the trigger.

_**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**_

_**Author's Note**__: Okay, I'm pretty sure everyone knew Gary was going to be a Star Trek Red Shirt (sacrificial character), but I tried to make his demise a little extra gruesome just for GG :-)_

_(Okay, only in Supernatural fanfiction can you say 'I disemboweled someone just for you' and it not sound weird!)_

_Bruna x5, thanks so much for your kind words._

_Is it just me, or have Thursday nights lost most of their luster since May 18th? Oh well, they'll be back to being my fave night of the week in September! :-)_


	7. That Certianly Wasn't Ketchup

_**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**_

_**Previously**__: As it wrenched itself back from the crackling source of pain, Jo was horrified to see red and bloody bits of Gary's insides dangling from its clenched fingers. Nevertheless, she stood firm and didn't release the trigger._

**Chapter 7 ****That Certainly Wasn't Ketchup**

_**Author's Note:**__ Okay, this chapter was originally quite gory so I have edited it and toned it down some. Hopefully it's still kinda icky but not over the top!_

The Nokken was subjected to the painful shock of Jo's stun gun for a full two and a half seconds before it managed to pull back enough that the hunter lost the contact. It became evident in half that time that the voltage wasn't having a lasting effect. While Swampy was clearly feeling it and definitely didn't like it, it was recovering quickly as soon as the current was broken. It snarled its sharp teeth and narrowed its yellow slits of eyes at Jo and, amid the din of Gary's screaming and Shelby's barking, she could see its muscles tensing in readiness to launch an attack in her direction.

She had always found it amazing just how many thoughts can run through a person's brain in a split second when in the middle of a fight or traumatic event. Ash had once explained in great length the exact chemical and bioelectrical something-or-other reason for this occurrence, but Jo had just chalked it up to adrenaline. She knew the Nokken was fast, too fast for her to get out of its path before it struck her. But she also observed a fast-moving cowboy right behind the beast and calculated that his outstretched stun gun would reach it first. So instead of moving away and trying to flee, she ducked just enough to avoid the deadly arm swing that came first and thrust her right hand forward, up under its outstretched arm, juicing Swampy with another 500,000 volts at the exact same time Colby's own stun gun was jabbed into its leathery back.

The double dose seemed to have more of an effect. Not as much as the hunters would have liked and not enough to put the beast on the ground, but enough that its forward attack on Jo stopped and it writhed in pain for a few seconds before managing to throw its weight away from the pair of humans in the direction of the door.

As before, it seemed to pull itself together remarkably quickly, but this time it paused. Remembering that it had run away at the lake, Jo held back, not wanting to get into a close quarters fistfight with the far more powerful beast while nursing a dislocated shoulder if there was a chance it would leave and give them time to regroup. Time to maybe save Gary. The brief lull only made the older hunter's screaming suddenly more real and Jo spared a glance in the man's direction.

He was still lying on his back on the floor, his hands clamped to his stomach and his boot heels scuffing the floor in spastic jerking motions. His eyes were wide and he was thrashing his head from side to side as he howled in either shock or pain - probably both. Blood was everywhere on his hands and his shirt and Jo let out a sharp cry of alarm when she realized the hunter was clawing at things that looked suspiciously like intestines. It was like a scene from a war movie where the dying soldier tries vainly to shove his innards back in the hole, only this wasn't some actor and that certainly wasn't ketchup.

Jo tore her eyes from the horrific scene long enough to assess what was going on with Swampy. The creature was still standing near the doorway but didn't look like it was about to leave. Quite the opposite, in fact. She glanced over at Colby who, to her surprise, was no longer standing his ground. He had dashed a few steps backwards and was grabbing something from the floor by the broken table. When he turned back around, she realized it was his sword.

He looked up and caught her gaze as he moved swiftly back towards the door. "Help him!" he shouted, jerking his head towards Gary. Hatless and bleeding from somewhere on his hairline, he then rushed forward at Swampy, sword in one hand and stun gun in the other.

Jo's instinctive reaction was to charge forward also but a combination of things curbed that urge, starting with Colby's commanding tone when he had given her the instruction to help Gary. Never one to blindly obey, it did cause her to hesitate, even if only for the time it took to re-assess the situation.

Colby moved quickly and bobbed and weaved successfully as he lunged at Swampy, managing to get his stun gun up against its stomach. Shelby aided by becoming an effective distraction by launching herself through the air and clamping her jaws down on the thing's shoulder. It was again writhing from the voltage and its lethal club-like arms flailed sideways, easily avoided by the skilled hunter causing the pain. As it stepped backwards, Colby moved forward with it, his dog still firmly planted on top of its bulk, until it slammed itself up against the door frame and couldn't back up any farther.

Meanwhile, Gary's hand fell away from his gut and a long strand of something bloody slipped to the floor. His head tilted sideways and his eyes managed to focus on Jo's as she glanced hesitantly in his direction. "Help me," he choked in a gargled whisper.

Jo had taken a step towards the noisy and violent fight at the door but stopped at his words, deciding that at that moment, Gary needed her help more than Colby. He wouldn't last another two minutes in the state he was in. If Swampy gained the upper hand, she would rethink her decision, but right now, Gary needed to stop squirming and pulling at the entrails.

She fell to her knees next to him, dropping the stun gun next to her to free up her right hand since she could barely move the left. She gently moved his hands away from the wound and had to stifle her gag reflex when she saw the large, gaping hole they had been covering. Having no idea how to deal with a wound of this severity, she simply scooped up all the pieces that were still attached and slid them all back inside. She took her thin jacket off and bunched it up over the hole, applying gentle pressure and speaking soothing words to Gary.

Of course she never stopped glancing over to Colby. The guy was freaking amazing! He had somehow managed to keep the stun gun's electrodes embedded in the Nokken's stomach as it thrashed and banged itself against the door jamb in pain and discomfort. She almost leapt to her feet at one point when Colby himself was smacked hard against the wooden door but he never let go of his weapon. After a good ten seconds, his stun gun finally gave out and, reacting too quickly for Swampy to regain its bearings, he simply tossed it aside, stepped back, and swung his sword in a sweeping sideways arc at the leathery head.

The head didn't come off but the blow sure had Swampy screaming. Shelby had removed herself from her perch on the creature's shoulder and was now on the ground by her owner's feet, still barking madly. Colby swung again and, although the sharp blade sank a couple of inches into the leathery neck, he received a hard blow to the gut from those thick, brutish arms for his efforts.

Gasping, he took a single step back as he recoiled the sword. Without even waiting for his breath to return, he thrust the blade forward at Swampy's heart in an attempt to spear the sucker. It didn't quite work as the blade's tip barely broke through the seemingly impenetrable hide, but he pulled back and thrust again and again, not relenting for even a second.

The Nokken lashed out at him with wildly flailing arms, a far cry from the previously well executed blows it was aiming at them. Colby took a few sideways swipes but kept stabbing and swinging until the beast tumbled to the floor just outside the door. On its back on the deck, the cowboy rushed it again, raising the sword high in the air before ramming it downward straight at Swampy's heart.

This time the blade sank deep. Colby swirled it around a couple of rotations before retracting it and repeating the downward thrust. Jo was about to shout in excitement at her partner's triumph when she realized Gary's hands were no longer holding her wrists. She looked downwards to see them slide limply to the floor, his head roll sideways, and his legs fall still.

"Gary?" She looked for a reaction and her insides twisted with sorrow as she noticed his chest had grown still also. "Gary?" she pleaded. "Gary, we got him." She looked back out the door where Colby was sawing a hole in the now barely-moving Nokken's chest with the three-foot blade.

She sat back on her haunches with a sigh. She wanted to shout for joy at their victory but it didn't feel like much of a win with a hunter lying dead in front of her. She hadn't liked Gary but had certainly never wished such a miserable fate on him.

She rose to her feet, wincing at the pain in her shoulder but doing her best to ignore it as she made her way to the front door to check on Colby. He was now kneeling over the huge beast trying to scoop the heart out of the hole he had made with the tip of his sword. He wasn't exactly getting anywhere.

Jo had seen enough gaping holes for one night. "Just reach in and pull it out," she suggested.

Colby looked up at her with a raised eyebrow. "I ain't sticking my hand in there," he said with what she could have sworn was a grin. It was hard to tell with the stream of blood that ran down his cheek. "_**You**_ scoop it out."

Jo snorted and rolled her eyes. "Seriously?" she chided, kneeling down next to the still creature and shoving her already blood-covered right hand into Swampy's chest. She grabbed the biggest lump of semi-solid muscle she could find and yanked it out, tossing it on the deck where it landed with a squishy plop.

"Gross," Colby commented, wrinkling his nose in disgust. He sank back to a seatede position on the deck, still panting from the exertion of the fight. Shelby was still barking furiously, at everything, it seemed. She snarled at the unmoving form of the beast on the deck and growled and barked out into the otherwise quiet night that surrounded them.

"Shelby!" Colby scolded, reaching a hand out to stroke her prickled haunches, effectively quelling the racket. He turned to Jo. "Gary?"

She shook her head.

"Dang," Colby sighed, his remorse seeming genuine. "Guy was a weasel but..."

"Yeah," Jo agreed, not needing to say anymore. They sat on the deck next to the dead Nokken for a few moments in silence, catching their breath and calming their nerves. Finally, Jo turned to Colby. "We should salt and burn him."

Colby quirked an eyebrow. "No demons here. No need to rush. Wouldn't it be a bit more appropriate to let his kin do that?"

"Not Gary," she corrected, jutting her chin at Swampy, who's stench only seemed to worsen with each passing second. "Him."

Colby let out a long breath and groaned a bit as he rose stiffly to his feet. "Oh yeah, s'pose." He reached out a hand to Jo's left side as an offer to pull her up and must have noticed her wince as she declined his help for his face pulled into a frown. "You okay?" he asked her, eyes narrowing in scrutiny.

She nodded as she straightened her knees. "Yeah," she answered, "I think I dislocated my shoulder though."

"And you call that fine?" Definite sarcasm.

"About as fine as you standing there with blood pouring down your face," she retorted.

Colby laughed. "Alright, alright. Let's go back inside where it's light and I'll set it for you."

She nodded, dreading the impending pain of having her shoulder set and followed Colby inside. She had never had the misfortune of having to pop hers back in before but had seen it done to another hunter and, judging from the way the tough man screamed and almost fainted, she was fairly certain it would hurt like a sonofabitch.

The cowboy stopped in front of Gary, looking down at the dead man's still form. "What a way to go," he said quietly, shaking his head. "Dude didn't deserve that."

Jo moved over to the bunks and grabbed one of the woven blankets folded at the foot of the lower one. She shook it open with her good hand and attempted to spread it over Gary. Seeing the difficulty she was having doing this one-handed, Colby stepped in to help. "He was a good hunter," she said. "Kind of a creep, but a good hunter."

They fell silent for another moment in unspoken respect for the fallen hunter. It was Colby who broke the silence. "Okay, up against the wall," he ordered, bending down to scoop his hat off the floor where it had fallen during the fight.

"What?" She looked at him in confusion.

"I'm gonna set that shoulder," he pointed at her left arm, which she held cradled close to her side.

"Have you done this before?" she asked warily. Gordon Walker hadn't put Shawn Reilly up against the wall when he'd set his several years back.

"Of course," Colby scoffed. "Don't you trust me?"

Jo rolled her eyes, more from nervousness than anything else, but did as he asked, moving to stand against a bare patch of the cabin's log wall. Colby stepped up in front of her, leaning in close as he reached out and felt around the dislocated shoulder with a remarkably gentle touch. She hissed in pain when his prodding sent a jolt of agony searing through her body.

He gave her an apologetic look. "This is gonna hurt," he warned softly.

"I know," she nodded. "Just do it already."

He leaned his body against hers, bracing his hands in front and in back of her shoulder, and gave her no warning as he jerked suddenly, applying a sharp pressure to her dislocated bone. Jo heard a sickening popping noise a split second before the pain registered and she cried out in agony, feeling her knees buckling as she did so. She'd been hurt and banged up before, but that had to be one of the most excruciatingly painful things she'd ever experienced. She fought an almost overwhelming urge to faint, struggling to stay focused and awake.

She became aware of a steady pressure on her and realized Colby had his hip pressed against hers and his forearm braced across her good shoulder, essentially the only things holding her up right now as her legs felt like Jello. His face was close and he tipped his head downwards slightly to get good look at her eyes. "I'm sorry," he whispered, still holding her firmly.

She just nodded her appreciation and allowed him to support her while she took the next few seconds to pull herself together. The pain had been excruciating but passed quickly. After a few deep breaths, she nodded for him to let her go and he stepped back.

"Did it work?" he asked hesitantly.

She lifted her left shoulder and rolled it slowly. The pain was virtually gone. "Yeah," she breathed in amazement. "It's fine." She noticed the look of relief that passed across his face and narrowed her eyes at him. "You look surprised," she accused. "I thought you'd done this before."

"I have," he defended. "But it was my own shoulder and I had to slam it against the wall three times before the dang thing popped back in place."

Jo's jaw dropped and she was about to give him grief but changed her mind, realizing instead how lucky she had been to have him there. "How about you?" she asked sincerely, gesturing towards the blood on his face. "Want me to clean that?"

"Thanks but I'm good," he declined her offer of help, instead grabbing a flask of water and taking off his shirt. "It's just a little nick." He doused the corner of the flannel fabric and dabbed it a few times at his temple before scrubbing his cheek clean.

"Nurse Vicky from the Mental Hospital would be proud," she teased, not really sure herself if she was referring to his horrendous attempt to tend to his own wound or to the marvel of nature that was this man's bare chest.

He grinned back at her and grabbed his duffel off the floor. Opening it up, he yanked out a clean t-shirt and pulled it over his head before digging in his jeans pocket for his lighter. He gave it a test flick and grabbed a box of salt as he turned towards the door. "I'm gonna throw Swampy on the barbeque," he announced. "It'll be light soon and the Rangers may show up here during the daytime." He paused and jerked his chin at the blanket-covered hunter in the middle of the floor. "You know anybody you can call for him?" he asked, his voice suddenly far more somber.

Jo shrugged. Gary knew a lot of people but she wasn't aware of any real friends or family. She was fairly certain there wasn't a Mrs. Windabugg. "My mom, I guess," she offered finally. She sighed and pulled her phone out of her pocket. "I'll call her."

Colby nodded and left the cabin, shushing Shelby again who started growling the moment the pair stepped outside.

Her mother's phone only rang twice before Ellen's startled voice answered it. "Jo? That you? Are you alright?"

"I'm fine Mon," Jo resisted the urge to roll her eyes at her mother's panic. She clearly hadn't called her mother for the first time in months at four-thirty in the morning just to chat, so a little worry was probably justified.

"Sweetie what's up?" Ellen's voice had lost the panicked edge but still held some urgency.

"Colby and I killed the monster," she announced, cringing that she had just inadvertantly taken some of the credit for what she considered a glorious kill by the cowboy alone.

"And are you two alright?" There was that question again, this time including Colby and clearly fishing for a reason for the call. A reason like her daughter's new cowboy boyfriend had been killed or Jo had been injured.

"We're fine," she placated. "But Gary's not."

"Gary Windabugg?"

"Yeah. He showed up here insisting on working the case with us and the thing killed him." There was a brief silence on the phone.

"But you're okay and it's definitely dead?" came the hushed answer.

"Yes," Jo repeated. "I'm fine. Colby's outside right now salting and burning the Nokken's corpse. But Gary's here and he's dead and I don't know who else to call to come get his body. I don't know any of his friends. Nobody much liked him back home at the Roadhouse..." she realized she had just called the Roadhouse home..."except you."

She could hear her mother sighing on the other end of the phone. "He doesn't have much family," she said. "He's got an old hunting partner over in New Hampshire, Bart. I think Bart would like to be the one to salt and burn Gary."

"Well, it's gonna be daylight soon and there may be Rangers poking around up here today, so what should I do with his body in the meantime?" Jo asked, hating that she was sounding so insensitive.

"I'll come get him," Ellen offered. "Bart's pretty severely crippled and doesn't get around much anymore so I'll take Gary to him. Where are you hon?"

Jo let out a breath of relief. Disposing of Gary or putting his skewered body in her Jeep was not something she had been particularly looking forward to, so if her mother was willing to take the responsibility off her hands, she wasn't going to turn her down. All that really mattered was that the hunter got a proper funeral with his friends present. "We're at the Lodge's remote cabins, about two miles up from the main lodge."

"I'll be there in half an hour," Ellen told her. "And Jo?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm glad you're okay. I'll see you soon."

"Kay," Jo said quietly before disconnecting the call.

_**Author's Note**__: Don't worry, this is __**NOT**__ going to be a 'man saves the day, end of story' fic, I promise you. Jo's still got her bit to play, as does Ellen, because (as anyone who's ever read any of my stories knows), my hunts are never that simple. It ain't over yet. I don't usually give spoilers but thought I should throw that in there in case anyone was thinking I didn't do Jo justice in that fight scene. You'll just have to trust me; I have my reasons *evil cackle*._


	8. Have You Ever Kissed a Girl?

_**Previously**__: "I'll be there in half an hour," Ellen told her. "And Jo?"_

_"Yeah?"_

_"I'm glad you're okay. I'll see you soon."_

_"Kay," Jo said quietly before disconnecting the call. _

_-.-.-.-l-l-l-.-.-.-_

**Chapter 8 - ****Have You Ever Kissed a Girl?**

Jo and Colby were still outside when Ellen arrived just as dawn was breaking. The pair were standing around one of the piles of brush and sticks they had prepared in case a fire was needed to ward Swampy off should things not have gone their way during the fight. The flames were dying down now and all that remained of the Nokken was a smoldering pile of ashes in their midst. Ellen drove right past the end of the trail, bouncing her pick-up truck over the bumps in the grassy clearing right up to the front of the lodge.

Both young hunters turned towards her as she got out of the truck and headed over to meet her.

"Hey Mom. He's inside," Jo said, getting right to the point.

"Mrs. Harvelle," Colby tipped his hat in nervous greeting.

"Colby," Ellen said, returning his polite welcome in kind but lacking in any genuine warmth. She followed Jo up the steps and into the cabin.

Jo gestured to the blanket-covered form on the floor. The blood from Gary's stomach-wound had soaked through, leaving a dark-red stain on the gray fabric. Ellen stepped forward and kneeled down, reaching for the corner of the body's cover.

"Uh, mam, you might not wanna do that," Colby suggested hesitantly.

Too late. Ellen flipped the blanket to the side, exposing Gary's face and torso. Jo was impressed at the lack of shocked reaction from her mother. Ellen's face was almost impassive as she took in the gory sight of her dead long-time acquaintance. The older woman stayed where she was for a few seconds before flipping the blanket back over the body. She rose to her feet and turned to Jo.

"This was a Nokken, you say?" she asked.

Jo nodded.

"Never heard of one in this country," Ellen commented, looking around the cabin.

"Neither had Rufus," Colby added.

"Rufus?" Ellen squinted at him.

"Uh, Rufus Turner," he explained, looking uneasy under her intimidating stare. "Hunter from Canaan."

"Yeah I know Rufus," she told him. "He a friend of yours?"

"Yes, Mam."

Her look softened slightly as she studied the cowboy for a moment. Finally she sighed and gestured towards Gary. "I guess I'd better get him to his friend in New Hampshire," She glanced at Jo again, clearly looking for her daughter to initiate a conversation beyond the bare minimum of words she had spoken so far.

"I'll get him better wrapped up for you," Colby offered, grabbing a second blanket off the upper bunk and kneeling down next to Gary. "For the drive."

"Thank-you, son," Ellen nodded, still looking at Jo. "You still gonna be around when I get back later tonight?" she asked.

Jo was hesitant. She hadn't really thought about it. "The hunt's over," she shrugged. "I should probably get back to my job."

If she was even trying, Ellen didn't do a very bang up job of covering her disappointment. "I thought maybe we could talk," she said an almost pleading edge in her voice. "It's been almost a year since I've even seen you Joanna Beth."

"I know, Mom. Maybe I'll swing by your place in a few weeks, when I get some more time off." Jo was using her job as an excuse but really had a couple more days before she had to get back. Putting off her mother was almost habit by this point. She knew what a sit-down conversation would lead to - another fight. Her Mom questioning her capability and trying to convince her to give up hunting and give one more shot at being normal.

"Well, actually," Colby interrupted from where he was crouched, folding the blanket corners under Gary hospital-style, "I'm gonna stick around for another day. Maybe you could wait 'til tomorrow and I could fix your tranny for you."

Jo gave him a slightly traitorous look but hesitated. She was enjoying the cowboy's company and wouldn't mind not parting ways quite so soon. And a free transmission repair on her aging Wagoneer was hard to pass up. Her mother was looking at her expectantly. "I only have the room at the lodge until today," she stalled.

"I have my room in town," Ellen offered quickly and Jo grimaced.

"I don't think so, Mom..."

_( - - - The Older I Get by Skillet - - - )_

Colby stood up. "We got five cabins up here with nobody in 'em." He looked at Jo. "I plan on stayin' up here tonight. Rangers don't know their supposed 'bear' is dead. You can always join me." He looked over to Ellen. "You want Gary in the back of the cab or in the truck-bed?" he asked.

Ellen winced at the question. "The truck-bed," she answered looking guilty. "There's a tarp in there you can spread over him though you better weigh it down for the wind."

Colby nodded and hoisted the body onto his shoulder and moved towards the door. When he disappeared outside, Jo turned to her mother. "If you come back to town tonight," she offered, "I'll come see you in the morning before I leave."

Ellen nodded, clearly willing to take whatever she could get.

"But Mom, please, no trying to get me to quit hunting. I don't want to have the same fight over and over."

"Neither do I," Ellen answered. "I told you before I don't have anything tying me to what used to be home. I don't want to stay there anymore. If having you around means hunting, then I'll hunt, Jo. I know all there is to know about hunting - don't think I haven't taken down a few monsters in my time."

"You're serious about that?" Jo was surprised her mother was still playing that card. Her Mom hated hunting. At least, she had always claimed to have no ambition to hunt herself whatsoever. The fact that she had killed anything Supernatural before was news to Jo.

"Of course."

Jo shook her head. Picturing herself being bossed around at every step of the way did not sound appealing at all. If she was going to hunt with anyone, it would be someone like Colby. Someone she was equal partners with. Someone who respected her ability and her decisions. "Why don't we just leave the subject of hunting off the table, Mom?"

She caught her mother's frustrated look but it morphed quickly into a blank expression as Colby stepped back inside the cabin. "All set, Mrs. Harvelle," he announced.

"It's Ellen," she told him quite civilly as she moved to leave. "See you tomorrow?" she said to Jo, stepping out into the reddening dawn.

"Okay," Jo agreed. "And thanks for taking Gary to his friend," she added awkwardly, again hating the fact that she'd had to call her Mom for help of any kind.

"That's what hunters do for each other, hon." She stopped as she reached her driver's door, looking back over the old truck's hood at her daughter. "You two did a good job on this one," she said. "Gary's people can rest in peace knowing what killed him's dead."

Jo managed a smile of gratitude at the comment as she and Colby stood on the porch watching her drive away. Her Mom had actually sounded sincere, maybe even a little proud. Maybe.

"So what now?" Colby asked, looking down at the blonde standing next to him.

"We finish cleaning up, that's what," she replied. "There's still blood on the floor and a broken table to fix and we have to get out of here before any of those damn Rangers show up."

Colby grinned. "Actually, there's this one Ranger called Aiden. I wouldn't mind so much if he showed up."

Jo couldn't help but laugh. While gathering intel on the missing hiker, she too had visited the Ranger station and met the very hunky but very married forestry worker Colby was referring to. "Well, I doubt 'Ranger Aiden' would believe you when you explain that the table is broken because a huge swamp monster threw you into it, so get fixing."

Colby raised his eyebrows at her. "You're more like your mother than you think, you know," he teased, grunting when he was rewarded a backhand in the gut for his efforts.

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

They managed to clean up around the cabin and get a couple of hours sleep in back at the lodge before Jo checked out of her room at noon. True to his word, Colby spent the rest of the afternoon under the Jeep's hood, fixing the transmission along with everything else he deemed not up to par. It was well past seven o'clock by the time he had it running to his satisfaction and Jo insisted on buying him supper as thanks.

"Lets go the bar," she coaxed. "I think we should celebrate."

Colby scrunched up his nose in apparent distaste. "It's kind of a redneck bar, ain't it? Not really my type of folks."

Jo frowned at him, making a point to stare at his flannel shirt, jeans, and cowboy boots. "Trust me, you'll blend," she argued, not taking no for an answer.

They enjoyed good-humored, jovial conversation over their meal. Despite his earlier implication that he didn't enjoy spending much time in bars, it became quite evident he did just that. He eyed the pool table the whole time they were eating and only managed to hold out for about half an hour afterwards before he was putting his quarters down to take on the winner of the current round. Being no stranger to a hustle, Jo joined in and between them, they cleared a good two hundred dollars from a group of visiting game hunters before calling it a night.

Sitting back down at a table near the bar, Colby grinned at Jo. "We should take this show on the road," he joked. "I had no idea how much easier it was hustling with a gal on your team."

"You should see how much I can make at poker," Jo laughed.

"You cleaned me out at poker last night, remember?" he reminded her, taking another sip of his beer. "Think I'll stick to pool."

"Well, its time to celebrate your big kill, Mister," Jo laughed and flagged the waitress over. "Can you bring my friend the big hero here two shots of Tequila, please?"

"Sure thing hon," the waitress agreed, smiling at Colby's look of embarrassment as she wandered back towards the bar.

"Uh, this was a team effort, Jo," Colby argued. "You're drinkin' one of those shots."

"I don't do Tequila," Jo answered back with a smirk.

"Well, I don't really drink much," Colby persisted. "I'll just stick to a couple of beers."

"Oh, are you in the program?" Jo winced, thinking maybe she shouldn't have brought him to a bar after all. A fair percentage of hunters had drinking problems, whether they acknowledged them or not. His young age didn't rule out that possibility either since hunters were known to be early bloomers.

"The program?" Colby looked confused for a second. "Oh! No, of course not. I just don't drink much."

"Why not?" Jo pressed, very curious as the cowboy wasn't usually much for sharing personal information.

"Well, for starters, we're driving back up to the cabin tonight, remember?"

"Correction," she laughed. "_**I'm**_ driving up. You refuse to take your car up that bumpy road. So, got any other excuses why you can't toast to your victory?"

Colby gave her an exasperated sigh. "Well for one," he offered, looking a bit uncomfortable, "My Dad used to drink and I don't want to be anything like my Dad."

"I don't think you have to worry about that," Jo told him sincerely, touched that he would share that concern with her. "Not a good enough reason."

He rolled his eyes as the waitress deposited two shots in the middle of their table. "By the way, it's _**our**_ victory," he jabbed his finger at Jo as he picked up one of the glasses and downed it.

"Okay then," she grinned, realizing she was having fun for the first time in a long time. "Let's have another toast to _**our**_ victory." She picked up her beer bottle and took a sip as Colby downed the second shot, grimacing as he slapped the shot glass back down on the table.

"Oh, I get it. You're more of a Bailey's drinker," she teased, waving at the waitress for two more shots. This was going to be easy.

Growing up spending most of her evenings in a bar with a steady stream of patrons that had no respect for the law, including the one regulating the legal drinking age, Jo had honed the skill of getting people drunk while remaining sober herself into an art form. People under the influence were easier to beat at cards, pool, arcade games, and gambling of any kind. She had learned her card skills from Ash, gathered her people skills from her Mom, and inherited her deadly aim from her Dad. These three talents, combined with a non-traditional upbringing involving a loose interpretation of the law, made her a natural hustler. She wasn't about to take any money from Colby, but was acting mostly from instinct and habit and found herself really enjoying his ever loosening tongue as he succumbed to her gentle coaxing of alcohol.

It was after eleven o'clock before she decided they should get going. Colby was starting to show obvious effects of the multitude of shooters he'd had and the group of out-of-state deer hunters they'd hustled earlier were starting to throw unfriendly looks in his direction. She paid the tab, giving Gary a silent thank-you for the extra cash, and ushered the intoxicated cowboy out into the Jeep where Shelby was patiently waiting. He climbed in the passenger side of the Wagoneer quite happily, chatting away about the day he had rescued the dog from an abusive owner in Omaha when she was just a pup. Shelby seemed to know he was talking about her because she showered him with slobbery kisses from the back seat for the entire ride up the dark track.

"Arg! Shel! Not in the ear!" he exclaimed, giving the husky a look of disgust and wiping the dog saliva off the side of his face.

He fiddled with the radio the whole ride up, complaining about the crappy reception before finally stopping it on what Jo thought sounded like a Reggae song.

_(- - - Buffalo Soldier by Bob Marley, playing on car stereo - - -)_

"Reggae?" she questioned teasingly. _Guy must be drunker than she thought._

"It's Bob Marley," Colby grinned.

"You listen to Bob Marley?" She hadn't expected that one. _A Rastafarian cowboy? No, make that a gay Rastafarian cowboy who hunts supernatural monsters and steals for a living._ She shook her head._ At least he had a nice car.  
_

"Yeah, a friend got me into it a few years back. Bro's actually really good."

Jo laughed. "You're full of surprises, Colby," she told him as she parked the car at the end of the trail. They'd decided to stay in the next cabin over from the one where Gary had been killed, neither really feeling comfortable with sleeping in the first one. As well as their sleeping bags, they grabbed their duffels, still packed with an assortment of weapons. Necessary or not, that was a habit all decent hunters fell into early on in their hunting careers and neither Jo nor Colby were novices. The moon was bright and it was a warm evening as they strolled across the grassy clearing.

"It's actually quite nice up here," Jo commented as they reached the cabin. "Well, now that we don't have to worry about a killer Nokken trying to eat us."

"I was never worried," Colby grinned at her. "You can take care of yourself pretty good."

"You sound surprised," Jo teased.

"No, it's just that..." Colby frowned, his alcohol-dulled wit unable to come up with a way to get his foot out of his mouth as quickly as he probably would have liked.

"It's just that I'm a girl," the blonde accused in a friendly manner.

"No," Colby rebutted, putting his arm around her shoulders and squeezing them towards his. "It's just that you're...little."

She couldn't argue with that one. Colby was no giant of Sam Winchester proportions, but he was a good six feet tall and pulled up next to his broad shoulders and well-built arms, she couldn't dispute he made her slim form look positively 'little'.

He let her go and dumped his sleeping bag on the end of the bed - the only bed. "You're not gonna make me sleep on the floor again, are you?" he asked her, giving her the biggest puppy-dog pout he could muster. "I promise I won't lay a hand on you."

Jo couldn't help but laugh. "Fine, whatever," she gave in, knowing he was telling the truth. He shook out his sleeping bag on the bed and plopped himself down on top of it.

"So, you don't really get along with your mother, huh?" he asked, folding his hands behind his head.

She lit the lamp and turned out the flashlight. "She treats me like I'm twelve," she answered.

"Seems to me she just worries about her twelve year old."

Jo punched him playfully in the arm and flopped down on the bed next to him, both lying on their backs. She decided to take the opportunity to ask a few questions of her own. "Do you get along with yours?"

"My parents aren't around anymore." For the first time, he answered a personal question with a straight answer. "My Dad was a hunter but he tried to settle down when my Mom got pregnant with me. But he was always real restless and he started going away on longer and longer huntin' trips. He finally left us for good when my Mom got diagnosed with cancer when I was twelve and when I was fifteen, he died on a hunt. I didn't even know 'til a month later when Rufus got wind of it and came to tell me and my Mom.

Jo hadn't been expecting his whole childhood history but found she was fascinated. "What about your Mom?" she asked softly.

"She was sick a long time. We didn't have any insurance and the cancer medication was so expensive that I took to stealin' everything from wallets to cars to pay for it." He turned his head and grinned at Jo. "Got pretty good at it too."

"I noticed that," she said wryly, returning his smile.

"Well, Rufus helped us out when he could, found us a decent place in Colorado near some specialist, but I mostly looked after her on my own 'til she died when I was seventeen."

Jo felt a lump in her throat as she listened to his story. She had become very fond of Colby and it was upsetting to think about a very young version of him going through the things he was describing. He had an unmistakable sweetness to him that seemed to hover just under the tough hunter exterior and his openness right now, although no doubt influenced by copious amounts of alcohol, made him seem vulnerable and sad.

"I'm sorry," was all she said, unable to imagine the horror of watching your mother slowly die of cancer for five years and being helpless to stop it.

"Ain't your fault," Colby dismissed her condolences. "But you should be glad your Mom's still around coz some of us ain't so lucky."

She knew that. That very thought crossed her mind every single day. In fact, the only time she ever seemed to forget that was when she was actually _**with**_ her mother. Which made no sense, she knew, but things had just managed to get so out of hand between them since that fight almost two years ago when Sam and Dean had used her as bait during a hunt.

She decided to steer the conversation back to Colby's story, not wanting to deal with her own mother issues until her visit tomorrow morning. "So did your dad teach you how to hunt?"

"Nope," the cowboy shook his head. "Rufus did. He was more like a dad to me than my real Dad." There was a definite, if only slight, slur to his words.

"You didn't get along with your Dad then?"

"More like he didn't get along with me. He didn't think much of his son, when he even acknowledged I existed. Guess I didn't measure up. Course, he was an ignorant asshole." He rolled his head towards her again. "Your Mom musta known him," he said. "See the way she looked at me when I mentioned his name?"

Jo had noticed. Wyatt Hutchins must have been a real jerk for her Mom to have that reaction because her Mom put up with a lot of hunters over the years, many of whom were total pricks.

"Did he know you were gay?" she asked, wondering if that had been the reason.

Colby chuckled but there was no real humour in the sound. "You know, I think maybe he knew before I did."

"Really?"

"Well, there had to be a reason why he kept beating the crap outta me when I was a boy."

Colby spoke the words as if he was joking, but Jo certainly wasn't laughing. She was picturing Colby as a young boy, probably wearing an oversized cowboy hat and grinning sweetly like he did now, and couldn't imagine how anyone could beat a little kid like that. She'd seen this kind of situation plenty of times, especially working in bars with a rough clientele her whole life, but didn't often get to put a face on the recipients of that anger; usually it was the bastards doling it out that frequented the bars.

She had marveled at how cool and together Colby had seemed, how confident he was in his role as a hunter, but realized now he was just as screwed up as the rest of them. She decided to change the subject, picking up instead on his comment that he hadn't always known he was gay.

"So you didn't always know you liked guys?" she asked him, lightening her tone. "When did you realize?"

"Uh, when I fell in love with a dude, I guess," he answered candidly.

She looked over to see a smile spreading across his face as he stared up at the cabin ceiling. That must be a fond memory.

"Your first boyfriend?" she urged.

"Not exactly," Colby snorted. "Guy was straight."

"Ouch. What happened?"

"I was nineteen and crashing on his couch for a couple of months. You wouldn't know this about me, but I tend to overshare when I get drunk," he slurred.

Jo had to laugh. She had definitely noticed this fact but was thoroughly enjoying its benefits and was absolutely not going to put a stop to it anytime soon.

"Anyway, one night I had a few too many, I made a move, he freaked, and I split. Haven't seen him since."

Jo's mouth flew open. "What a jerk!"

Colby laughed, a genuine but sleepy laugh. "No, he's not that at all. It wasn't his fault, I kinda sprung it on him. We were friends. I was even sorta dating his sister."

That surprised her. "So you dated girls?"

"Hmph," was his noncommittal response.

"Have you ever kissed a girl?" she pressed.

"Of course." He gave her a lopsided grin. "Have you?"

"Of course," she replied a little too quickly.

"Liar," he snorted.

"Okay, you got me there," she admitted. "So what was your mom like?"

"Why all the talk about me?" he diverted. Even drunk, that subject was clearly off limits. "I thought we were discussing you and your Mom, who, by the way, obviously doesn't approve of me."

"She doesn't like the fact that you're a hunter," Jo defended. "She'd like you if she got to know you." Jo believed that to be the honest truth. Her Mom would like Colby. Hell, if she had warmed up as quickly as she did to the Winchester brothers, she'd _**love**_ Colby.

Colby sighed. "Too bad that doesn't work for everybody."

"I beg to differ," she countered, receiving an appreciative grin for her efforts.

"So howcome some hunter hasn't snagged you up yet?" he teased. "If I was straight, I'd be all over you."

"You're drunk."

"Doesn't make it not true. So tell me, Annie Oakley, who's the jackass who got you wound up so tight?"

"There isn't anyone." _How had the conversation turned to her love life?_

"Don't lie to me, I just spilled my guts."

"Fine," she relented. "There's a couple, I guess. But neither of them are around anymore."

"Hunters?"

"Yep. "

"Dead?"

"Yep."

She felt as much as heard Colby's deep sigh from where he lay next to her. "It's a crappy job somedays, isn't it?" he said quietly.

"So why do you keep doing it?" She was determined to avoid having to talk about Matt Graves and Dean Winchester.

"Same as you, I reckon. Feels like I was born to do it. I ain't any good at anything else besides stealing stuff and this way I get to save people. Kinda justifies the life of petty crime, don't ya think?"

"Hey, unlike you, I work for a living."

Colby ignored the jab. "You do it coz of your dad? Hunt, I mean."

"Yeah," she admitted. "How'd you know?"

"That knife you almost stuck me with. Not the lightest or the most practical. Probably wouldn't even make a meadow nymph flinch. But you tote that thing everywhere. I couldn't help but notice the W.A.H. carved on the blade."

Jo caught her breath in surprise. "You're pretty observant," she cooed. "For a guy."

"Hey, gay guy remember? Don't lump me in with those other cowboys." He closed his eyes and within seconds, she heard his breath even out to the slow pace of deep slumber.

"Not in a million years," she whispered quietly, smiling at the innocent look his face adopted when sleep relaxed his muscles. She pulled her own sleeping bag up and curled in next to him, not even minding the large furry lump that draped its body over her feet and lay down with its own contented sigh.

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

_**Author's Note: **Those of you who have read my season 4 trilogy will hopefully recognize Colby's first male crush :) Sorry Colby didn't get eaten by a monster while he was out burning the dead Nokken as many of you suspected *lol*. This chapter was basically dedicated to the two relationships Jo has going here, her fast-forming friendship with Colby and the complicated but deep bond she has with her mother. Hope I did them both justice - please let me know what you thought. I tried to make the conversations realistic and not contrived like some soap opera or teen drama show. Hopefully *fingers crossed* I succeeded._


	9. I Won't Let That Happen

_**Previously**__: He closed his eyes and within seconds, she heard his breath even out to a slow, slumbering pace. She pulled her own sleeping bag up and curled in next to him, not even minding the large furry lump that draped its body over her feet and lay down with its own contented sigh._

**Chapter 9****- I Won't Let That Happen**

Jo had no idea how much time had passed when she was awoken with a start by a vibration at her feet. She blinked a couple of times to get her bearings and let her eyes adjust to the dim light as she sat up quickly.

Colby was still sleeping soundly next to her, his hat pulled down over his eyes and his arms folded across his stomach. She connected the noise and the tremors she was feeling to a throaty growl coming from the husky sprawled over her feet and followed its gaze to the single window in the front of the cabin. Alarm at the dog's behavior jolted her senses into full commission and she quickly reached out and turned off the lithium battery lamp they had left glowing on the small bedside table.

The room now in complete darkness, she slid her feet off the bed and headed towards the window. It took her eyes about three steps to adjust to the redistributed light and allow her to see outside into the ample moonlight of the Vermont night sky so she was only just coming around the bottom of the bed when she saw it.

A face looking in the window. A woman's face; pale with long brown hair.

_The woman from the lake._

"Colby!" she cried, adrenaline kicking in as her instincts steered her immediately towards her duffel on the table. She was heartened to see the panicked edge to her voice get a sharp reaction from the other hunter, who sat up instantly with a surprised grunt.

She reached the duffel and was just unzipping it when the door burst open. There was no polite knock or suspenseful pause this time; it was simply closed one second and flying open the next, hitting the wall next to it with a loud crack. In the doorway stood Swampy, the big leathery version. Or what looked like Swampy. It had to be a different Swampy, Jo told herself, pushing aside the need to figure out exactly how or why it was here until a less urgent moment. Right now, it was looking rather menacing with its large frame silhouetted by the bright moonlight streaming in around it.

"Jo?" she heard Colby call her name urgently. A glance in his direction revealed he was standing but having woken up in the dark, his eyes were still adjusting and he was clearly still assessing the danger.

"Swampy's alive!" she yelled, just as the monster started moving. Being the closest, Jo knew she was going to be the first target and, still unable to find either of her stun guns in the jumble of weapons in her bag, her fingers wrapped around the next solid object they found, which happened to be the handle of a large Glock_. Better than nothing_. She hauled it out and flicked the safety off with one fluid motion, aiming it at the creature and firing. Even before the report of the gun sounded, her brain was already telling her the bullets would be useless and that she needed to get a better weapon.

The creature stomped its way closer, moving unfittingly quickly for such a large, stocky form. Jo backed up a step just as it reached her but realized she had waited too long to do so and kept firing as she braced herself for its inevitable blow. She saw the deadly club that passed as its arm raised to strike and made one last attempt to dodge out of its reach. It swung at her, not downwards as she had expected as that would have inflicted the most damage, but rather with backhanded arc that simply batted her out of its way like an annoying insect.

It still hurt like a son of a bitch.

She was bowled sideways and the sharp edge of the table connected brutally with her ribcage before she fell to the floor. She maintained her grip on the Glock but knew it wasn't going to do her much good if the creature came at her. She looked up, expecting to see its bulk looming over her ready to strike again but was surprised to find this wasn't the case. Instead, the beast was moving away, heading towards the back of the room.

_Towards Colby._ It had brushed her aside like a pesky bug and was heading for the bigger threat, she thought with a minute flash of indignation. She wracked her brain to try and remember if the cowboy had a weapon on him as she scrambled to her feet. By the time she was half-way upright, she had deduced the answer was no. They had been celebrating and having fun and neither of them had placed a weapon under their pillows like they usually did. She jerked her head up just in time to catch her fellow hunter swinging the bedside table at the advancing monster from where he was cornered between the wall and the bed.

She heard the small table cracking into pieces rather than saw it as once again she rooted through her duffel for the only weapon she had that had proven effective - the stun gun. No point in trying to charge the beast and pull it away from Colby without a weapon; hopefully he would last the few more seconds she needed to find it.

Shelby's furious barking had just registered in her adrenaline-induced mind when it stopped suddenly. Jo instinctively glanced over and saw the dog launch itself through the air towards Swampy's head. Colby was just leaping onto the bed in the other direction to get out from the corner he had been penned in but stopped almost mid-air and spun to catch the husky.

"Shel, no!" Jo heard him yell as he reached out but the dog was too far forward. His outstretched arms barely grazed the flying ball of fur and she flew right by him. Jo watched in dismay as the beast's thick, lethal arm swung at the approaching dog, batting her off to the side where she slammed into the wall with a loud whack and dropped to the ground with a sickening yelp.

"Shelby!" Colby cried, freezing where he stood on the bed for a second, a look of horror on his face as his eyes fell on Shelby's unmoving form on the cabin floor. The distraction proved to be enough for Swampy because it lunged forward towards the stricken hunter with both hands swinging. Colby snapped his head back around in realization and he tried to leap backwards to get off the bed but was only able to escape one of the leathered fists. The right-hand one caught him in the collarbone, sending him reeling back against the thick log bedpost. Instead of hitting him again or gutting him like it had Gary, however, it pulled him forward and off the bed, slamming him up against the log wall, its thick fists wrapped around his biceps.

Jo panicked and gave up on finding the stun gun, cursing also that they had left the sword hidden away in the Mustang's weapons compartment down at the main lodge. She prepared to lunge at the Nokken with whatever weapon her fist closed upon and was astonished at her luck when it happened to be the very one she had been looking for. Flicking the 'on' switch as she ran, she headed towards the scuffle in the far corner.

The creature still had Colby up against the wall where he was struggling wildly but his arms were pinned by its huge hands and his kicks were having little effect on its stocky bulk. Jo was horrified when it suddenly hunched forward, burying its massive head into the hunter's shoulder. Colby's head tilted upwards and he let out a shocked and agonizing scream as he writhed in pain.

_Oh Jesus! _she thought_. It's eating him alive! _

In the span of two heartbeats that seemed to take forever, she reached the pair and jabbed the electrodes into the exposed back of the creature. It jerked and spasmed and threw its head back making snarling, gurgling noises. Jo's stomach lurched when she saw the quickly reddening patch of blood soaking through Colby's white t-shirt and the thick, yellow strands of what she figured must be Nokken-saliva stretching between its sharp fang-like teeth and the hunter's bleeding shoulder. She braced herself to hold the stun gun in place as it bucked and tried to shake her off. It seemed unwilling to let go of Colby, however, and for a moment Jo thought this may work to their advantage and she may be able to hold the stun gun in place long enough to incapacitate it. It apparently reached its pain threshold though and decided to release its prize to deal with the source of the infliction.

It spun quickly, swinging at the blonde hunter so hard she heard the zing of displaced air as its arm swept across above her ducked head. She dodged the blow but was forced to pull back and break the contact with the stun gun as the Nokken was readying for another blow. She danced to the side, again escaping a deadly strike to the head, but was unable to jab the creature again with the small weapon in her hand. It lashed out again, this time aiming too low for her to duck under the swing and she felt its fist land in her gut a fraction of a second before the pain of being thrown into the woodstove shot up through her hipbone.

She wheezed and gasped for air as she rolled to the floor and tried to get her feet under her before it reached her again. Her knees were shaky but she was upright by the time it loomed over her and pulled back to strike. Thankfully, a freed Colby had grabbed a leg from the broken bedside table and swung it at the creature's head from behind just before it dealt the blow. The loud smack of the leg making contact distracted Swampy sufficiently for Jo to jab her hand forward, again connecting the electrodes with the monster's side.

As it reared backwards away from her, it received a hard shove from Colby, pushing it towards the wall. Jo kept pressing forward, never releasing the weapon as she dodged the swinging arms. Colby dashed over to the table and Jo guessed he was grabbing a knife to cut Swampy's heart out with. She took a couple of painful hits in the arm from the Nokken but managed to hold herself in position, realizing as she grunted with the pain of a third blow that the swings seemed to be getting more and more disoriented. A few more seconds and, if the last time was anything to go by, the beast would be subdued sufficiently to start carving.

A few more seconds was all she needed but, as Harvelle luck would have it, half a second more was all she got before her stun gun fizzled. She'd charged it up after the last fight but it was an older model and at full throttle, she didn't get much time out of it. As soon as the electric current stopped flowing, Swampy straightened up a bit and swung at her hard. Jo ducked but took a solid hit on the back of the shoulder that sent her sprawling. She turned herself over quickly, scrambling to get her feet under her, but saw that the creature wasn't coming after her. Instead it was making a bee-line for the door.

She saw Colby pull out a large knife from his bag and lunge after the Nokken but it was too fast and it just kept going. It paused at the doorway and turned around for a brief second, narrowing its yellow eyes at Colby before disappearing into the moonlit night. Jo was on her feet by this time and dashed to the door to see where it went and check that it was really leaving.

She felt Colby come up to stand behind her and they both stared out into the night. The beast was running across the clearing to the nearest tree line but when it arrived there, it stopped. Jo watched as it turned around slowly and stared back in their direction, its form now just a shadowy silhouette.

She continued to watch it intently but felt Colby step away from behind her and move back into the room.

"Shelby?" she heard him say in a worried, almost grief-stricken voice.

Her attention was suddenly divided between the Nokken staring creepily at them from the woods like some stalker from Hell and the cowboy squatting down next to the furry form in the corner. She heard a whimper and saw the dog's tail thump on the floor when Colby reached out his hand to pet her and felt a wave of relief. Not that she'd had much time to get overly attached to the husky, but it was a remarkably smart and loyal dog and it had been clear from the very first morning how much she meant to the hunter hunched over her now. She didn't wish that kind of loss on anyone, especially someone she considered a friend.

"She's okay," the cowboy offered after a minute though not turning around. "Just banged up and a bit shaken, huh girl?" he added, addressing the dog as he finished the sentence off. He helped the husky up and kissed her head before unbending his knees and turning back towards Jo.

"We still got company?"

Jo shook her head, her eyes still pinned on the tree line fifty yards away. "Can't see him," she said. "You think he'll try again?"

"I don't know what to think," Colby shrugged, heading back to his duffel. "But right now I would say it has the advantage. We should get going, huh?"

The fact that he phrased the almost-order as a question wasn't lost on Jo and was, as a matter of fact, appreciated. She nodded, not liking the thought of being trapped in the cabin with a Nokken lurking outside just waiting for the right moment to attack again with no sword, no machete, and no element of surprise to use against it. It was pretty strong so it wasn't like they'd likely be able to keep it barricaded out for very long. The door lock was already busted. Smart move would be to split and come back up with more weaponry later. She grabbed the flashlight and turned on the lamp, placing it on the table by the duffels. They grabbed Colby's stun gun and found Jo's spare, giving them each one for the two hundred yard dash to the Wagoneer.

Shelby seemed stiff and was definitely favouring her right hind paw, but was on her feet and staring intently at Colby as she seemed to do whenever he was preparing to leave the room. The hunters shouldered their duffels and paused side by side at the door, both staring nervously out into the night.

Colby raised an eyebrow questioningly at Jo and she nodded, giving the silent go-ahead. Now was as good a time as any. They weren't going to be any more prepared ten minutes, an hour, or two hours from now. She'd checked the time and it was just past one o'clock so there were quite a few hours until sunup. Even then, this thing had attacked the Forest Rangers in the daytime so that didn't exactly guarantee a safe getaway. Colby stepped outside, Jo matching his pace as they warily descended the cabin's porch steps and set out across the clearing.

They hadn't made it forty feet before they spotted the Nokken breaking the tree line and heading straight for them – fast.

"Shit," Jo swore. "We'll never make it to the Jeep before that thing catches us!" She turned to Colby. "You wanna turn back or fight it?" she asked quickly, readying her stun gun and grabbing the strap of her duffel, prepared to drop it to the ground if he said fight.

She wanted to fight it. She could feel the adrenaline coursing through her body, still amped up from the last round with the beast. Between the two of them, they could surely take it. Hell, Colby had practically taken the first one down by himself.

"Can't,' Colby said simply, taking Jo a bit by surprise. "Turn back!" he hissed, grabbing at her elbow as he took a step back towards the cabin.

She tightened her lips but didn't argue as there wasn't really time for a debate. The creature was closing the fifty yard gap between them quickly, its yellow eyes narrowed into angry slits. The hunters ran back to the cabin, slamming the door shut behind them. Jo immediately started to push the table towards the door, figuring they should at least attempt to keep the monster outside.

"So there's two of them," she thought aloud, panting with exertion as she heaved from her position behind the heavy table.

"That would be my guess," Colby said from where he stood against the wall by the window. Jo looked up sharply at him. Something wasn't right.

"We killed the dude," he said in a breathy voice. "I'm guessing this is his wife –maybe the chick from the lake."

"Yeah," Jo nodded, studying him closely. He sounded as if he was slurring. "When I saw it looking in the window, it was the woman's face from the one at the lake. Colby, are you still drunk?" It seemed odd he wasn't offering to help with the heavy table and after all, it hadn't been much more than a couple of hours since she'd cut him off at the bar.

"No," he caught her eye with an apologetic look on his face and put his hand over his bleeding shoulder. "I think it's vene…vemen…vemenous…" His head was reeling slightly and he was leaning very heavily against the wall as he struggled to get his tongue around the word.

"Venomous?" she supplied, suddenly alarmed. "Poisonous?" She hadn't taken a good look at Colby's shoulder wound but he had seemed to be moving around okay so she had decided it wasn't worth bothering him about until they got to the Jeep. She gave the table one final shove, wedging it firmly up against the closed front door. She came over to Colby and now that they were back in the dimly lit cabin, could see he didn't look good at all. His face was ashen and a thin sheen of sweat covered his forehead. He let himself slide down the wall until he was sitting on the floor and Jo peered cautiously out the window, relieved beyond belief to see the creature's form slinking away back into the woods.

She wracked her brain trying to figure out what was happening as she squatted down next to her fellow hunter, who was breathing in very shallow, quick breaths.

"The book said the Nokken's bite is poisonous," she recalled, reaching out and pulling open the neck of Colby's tee-shirt to get a look at the wound. The skin was red all around the four front puncture wounds, which were still oozing blood.

Colby nodded. "Yep."

Jo's stomach lurched as she finally put the pieces together. "Oh no," she gasped. "It also said that..."

"Yep, I remember that too," Colby cut her off, giving her another apologetic look.

Jo finished her sentence anyway. "…That a human is turned into a Nokken by a poisonous bite from another Nokken."

"Hmph. That was her idea of a love bite?" Colby croaked, attempting a grin.

Jo wasn't laughing. "We killed her mate!" she said urgently, not sure if Colby was fully understanding the severity of his situation. "She'll be looking to replace him."

"Well," Colby slurred, "Someone should tell her I'm batting for the other team. Not exactly a smart choice on her part."

She gave him an admonishing look. "They admire strength and fighting skills, warrior attributes remember? You killed its mate and, let's face it, you were kinda awesome," she grudged him a smile as she made the comment. "That's why it's got its sights on you. It won't give you up without a fight."

"Life as a hetero swamp monster? I think I'll pass," Colby chuckled quietly, closing his eyes for a moment when she laid the back of her hand against his forehead. He was seriously burning up.

"It just came over me when we were running," he offered solemnly, speaking in barely more than a whisper.

Jo nodded but didn't answer as she was deep in thought. "Trillium!" she said suddenly, jumping to her feet. She grabbed Colby's duffel from the floor and rooted through it, closing her fist around the small packet he had packed for their previous fight with the Nokken. Or was that their fight with the previous Nokken? Whichever, she was relieved that he still had it in his bag and she moved quickly back to him.

He was slumped against the wall, barely able now to keep his head lifted. She unwrapped the bundle of bulb-like shapes and pried them open to get the seeds. She removed the lid of her flask and dropped the precious few seeds inside, using the blade of her father's knife to crush them as the book had instructed. She then poured the cap half-full with water and tapped Colby's face gently until he opened his eyes again.

"I'm awake," he insisted unconvincingly, trying to focus his eyes on hers.

"Drink this," she ordered, holding the flask cap up to his lips. He obeyed wordlessly, making a distasteful face as he swallowed. Shelby curled herself up on the floor next to him and his hand automatically buried itself in her neck fur, fingers giving her a weak scratch.

Jo didn't pause, figuring it would take at least a minute or two to have any affect anyway. She pulled a shirt out of his duffel and soaked the corners in clean water, which was actually holy water, from her flask. She cut a slice in his t-shirt to expose his bleeding left shoulder and started to dab it clean with the damp shirt. She washed off all the yellowish, gooey strands of Nokken slober, or probably more accurately, Nokken poison.

Colby sat quietly while she worked, barely even wincing when she pressed quite hard on the wound to get it thoroughly clean. She pulled him forward to get at the four puncture wounds on the back of his shoulder also. During this process, she continually stood up to peer out the window and thankfully saw no signs of the second Nokken. When she was done cleaning both sides of the nasty bite, she felt his forehead again. He was still ridiculously feverish. "How you feelin'?" she asked him.

"Can you ride a motorcycle?" he asked.

"Of course," she frowned at him. Crap, he must be totally out of it. "What does that matter?"

"Gary's bike," he mumbled. "Take it."

Jo cursed under her breath. It was true they had forgotten to put Gary's dirt bike in Ellen's truck to take to his friend and had therefore hidden it in a cluster of bushes behind the cabin Gary had been killed in which was only fifty yards away. Why hadn't they thought of that before? She still had the keys in her coat. But it was too late for that now. She shook her head.

"No way you can balance on the back of a bike and I'm not leaving you here," she told him.

Colby winced. "I only felt better for about a minute," he rasped, giving her a pleading look. "It's not working. The bike's the only shot you've got, Jo. Please take it."

Jo's heart lurched at his words. If the Trillium wasn't working…what else could she do? She touched his face to help him focus his eyes on her. "Colby, do you realize what'll happen if I leave you here? You'll turn into one of them." Her voice went hoarse as she finished the sentence, the horror of Colby's possible fate hitting her anew.

Colby gave her a weak smile. "I won't let that happen."

She realized suddenly his pearl-handled revolver was on the floor next to him, his fingers ghosting over the handle, index finger gently curled around the trigger.

She swallowed past the lump in her throat, shock and determination flooding through her. "No," she said firmly, prying the gun away from him. "_**I**_ won't let that happen."

A thousand thoughts ran through her mind and not one of them involved allowing Colby to become the next Mr. Swampy nor eating a bullet from his own gun. She stood up sharply.

Okay, if the Trillium had only worked for a minute, it meant they needed more, much more. How could she get her hands on more without leaving? It was clear Colby wasn't going anywhere and she sure as Hell wasn't leaving him alone. The Nokken would probably walk in here and carry him off somewhere to complete the transformation. The poison seemed to be working quickly so waiting until morning wasn't an option. What other options did she have?

She had one. Her Mom. She knew it was her only one but still hesitated to move on it. Not for the sake of pride or saving face this time, but for fear of dragging her mother into this mess. But having been a mother hen and caretaker for so many hunters for so many years, her mother always had a good stock of supernatural remedies handy and she was only ten minutes away.

She looked over at Colby and was shocked to see the red skin around the puncture wounds in his shoulder turning brown. She reached out and touched it and gasped when she realized it felt rough and hard and….leathery.

She whipped out her phone and dialed her mother's number, realizing Ellen was Colby's one and only chance. It rang only once, her mother answering it with the same worried tone she had last time.

"Hi, Mom. I need your help."

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

_Author's Note: Okay, so I know absolutely __**nobody**__ saw that one coming and you're probably still reeling from the shock that there's a Mrs. Swampy (yes, that was sarcasm) but hopefully you enjoyed the chapter anyway :-) I was glad to finally be able to have Jo's true kick-ass hunter instincts surface and a bit of the Abandon All Hope Jo emerge. More to come._


	10. Go Get Your Own Man, Bitch!

_**Author's Note: **__I can assure everyone that, although I may kill off hunters and hikers and Forest Rangers, no animals shall be harmed in the writing of this fic. (Well, except maybe Swampy). But definitely no doggies. Shelby appears alive and well with Colby in a previous fic of mine which is set a year __after__ this one. So sorry to worry y'all :-) _

_**Previously**__: __She whipped out her phone and dialed her mother's number, realizing Ellen was Colby's one and only chance. It rang only once, her mother answering it with the same worried tone she had last time. "Hi, Mom. I need your help."_

**Chapter 10 ****- Go Find Your Own Man, Bitch!**

Jo spent the next twelve minutes standing over Colby looking out the window, her eyes glued to the tree line outside. The barely conscious man at her feet had given up his pleas for her to leave when he lost the ability to speak coherently. His eyes were mostly closed now and the only words he did speak were incomprehensible mumblings.

As expected, Ellen had immediately agreed to come, claiming she had a substantial stash of Trillium in her truck since it was commonly used as a treatment for Rawhead bites. The plan was for her to drive right up to the door where they would load Colby in the truck quickly and drive away. Jo would feed him the Trillium seeds as they drove and they would head to a nearby town where they could pick up even more if they still needed it.

Jo couldn't help but grin when she saw the headlights bouncing over the hump at the end of the trail where she had left her Wagoneer. Her mother must have been driving like she had a Hellhound on her tail to have arrived here so quickly. She looked down at Colby.

"The cavalry's here," she told him, well aware he probably wasn't even hearing her. She waved the flashlight out the window so her mother could see which cabin they were in and, once she saw the truck steer in her direction, heaved the table out of the way of the front door. She dashed to gather her things, grabbing Colby's stun gun in one hand, tucking her own spare into her waistline, and slinging her duffel across her back. She moved over to Colby and tapped his face, trying to wake him up enough to get him to his feet.

She was still struggling to lift the heavy hunter's dead weight when her mother appeared in the doorway. Jo was slightly taken aback and couldn't help but grin at the sight. With the moonlight streaming in around her, Ellen's face was shadowed but the silhouette of the military assault rifle she was holding in two hands, equipped with an M203 mini barrel-attached grenade launcher, was unmistakable and incredibly impressive. It was almost like a scene from an Arnold Schwarzenegger movie, Jo thought, a small wave of awe washing over her. Ellen Harvelle could kick Arnie's ass any day of the week.

Ellen paused in the doorway for a brief moment, looking around and clearly taking in the situation before moving quickly to where Jo was barely managing to keep the feeble cowboy on his feet with one of his arms pulled over her shoulder. The older woman slung her weapon around across her back and ducked herself under Colby's other arm, grunting as she hoisted upwards.

"Okay," she said sharply. "We got 'em. Let's go."

Jo didn't have thought to spare to be annoyed at the bossy tone and was already moving. The two of them half carried, half dragged Colby out the door onto the porch towards the steps. His head lolled a bit but was mostly slumped forward on his chest and although it seemed he was trying to get his feet under himself, the bulk of his weight fell on the female hunters at his sides. Jo looked up sharply when her mother stopped walking and cried out suddenly.

The truck's hood was open. Not only that, but wires were hanging out of where the distributor cap used to be.

"Oh my God," was all the blonde hunter could manage. _Could the Nokken have done that?_ It was just a beast , an animal with less IQ than Shelby.

_Wasn't it?_

"Hold him," her mother barked, ducking out from under Colby's other arm. Jo had no choice but to obey as the cowboy's weight suddenly fell entirely on her. She grunted in effort as she grabbed the back of his belt and hoisted, watching as her Mom raced over to the truck to peer in the hood. Ellen reached in and moved a few of the wires around to get a better look before turning back to Jo.

"This thing ain't goin' nowhere," she said grimly, looking back at her daughter. "Get back inside."

"Mom! Look out!" Jo yelled as the terrifying form of the Nokken suddenly appeared from around the side of the cabin. She was about to drop Colby and run to her mother's rescue but Ellen spun sharply, swinging the M4A1 rifle around and squeezing the secondary trigger.

The still night air was shattered with a loud boom as the grenade was fired. Jo watched in thrilled elation as the monster fell backwards when the projectile struck it in the chest, slamming it to the ground and spewing dirt and clumps of grass in the air as it exploded. As the dirt settled, both women could see the Nokken was still moving and in tact but Ellen didn't stop for a second. Instead she moved forward, taking aim and firing again in close range as she stood but ten feet from the creature.

Swampy was actually launched several feet backwards across the ground by the force of the second explosion, an explosion that would have blown a human to bits. It screamed but staggered to its feet, glaring at Ellen who stood her ground several feet away, lowering the arm she had raised as a shield against the blast. Jo called her Mom to get her attention and was about to toss her the stun gun when the Nokken took a step forward. Ellen whipped her head back around to face it and leveled the rifle at its chest in warning but never fired. Instead of attacking, however, the beast turned and ran away, disappearing around the same corner of the cabin from which it had appeared and stumbling slightly as it ran.

"Why didn't you shoot it again?" Jo couldn't help but ask as Ellen ran back up the porch steps and ducked herself under Colby's dangling arm once more.

Ellen shrugged. "Only had two rounds," she said, taking the lead and steering them back towards the cabin's front door. "I can't believe that didn't take it out."

They dropped Colby rather nonchalantly on the bed and both immediately started shoving the heavy table back behind the closed front door. "Wait!" Jo stopped mid-shove. "The Trillium. Is it in the truck?"

Ellen shook her head, still pushing. "I have it in my jacket, honey, keep pushing."

With the door barricaded once more, Ellen dug through her pockets for the precious bulbs of Trillium. She had quite a stash, at least five times what Jo had already given Colby. Hopefully it would be enough.

"We have to crush the seeds and feed them to him," Jo instructed, moving over to the window to look for signs of the returning Nokken.

"Actually, I called Rufus on the way up here," Ellen answered, carefully unwrapping the fragile bulbs and spreading them out on the nearby cabinet. "He says after we take out the seeds, if we take what's left of the bulbs and boil them in a little bit of water, we can spread it over the wound as well. That'll help the spreading through the skin while the seeds will help his body fight the poison from the inside."

Jo had been planning to administer the supposed antidote herself but relented when she noticed her mother had somehow taken charge of dealing with the Trillium. Instead, Jo simply took up the guard position at the window. "Rufus knew that?" she asked, not letting her mother's bossy nature get under her skin. "Why didn't he tell us that before hand?"

Ellen shot her a disapproving look at the accusing tone. "He didn't know that 'til last night," she explained. "Seems when your boy there called and told him it was a Nokken, Rufus went diggin' for all the intel he could find. Let me tell you, that man has a knack for gathering intel. Anyway, his source was in Europe and with the time difference and all, he didn't get the information until last night. By that time you'd already killed the thing. Or so he thought." She looked up from her task of crushing the seeds into Jo's flask lid. "Rufus is really worried about your boyfriend," she said slowly, glancing over at the unconscious hunter on the bed. "He's on his way here now from Canaan. I've never known him to worry about anyone. He ain't exactly the friendliest hunter I've ever come across."

Jo smiled as Ellen went back to work on the seeds. "Rufus has known him since he was a kid. And he's not my boyfriend Mom," she admitted. "He's actually gay."

Ellen chuckled but never looked up. "Well, that would explain why Rufus thought the notion of you two bein' a couple was so damn hysterical. I just thought he was being rude."

Jo laughed, looking back out the window and relaxing slightly as she realized the tension between her and her mother was completely gone, at least for the time being. Whether it was the impending danger or the direness of their situation, their petty differences suddenly seemed inconsequential. Her Mom had come when she needed her. That was something she had always been able to count on. The fact that she hadn't needed her in over two years didn't really matter; she had always known her Mom would be there when she did. Maybe she'd even taken it for granted, she admitted to herself.

"Hey Mom?" she said, partly just to make noise so she didn't have to hear the terrifying sound of Colby's shallow breathing that was becoming raspier with every passing moment.

"Yeah?"

"You were kinda awesome out there," she grinned. "With that big old M4, blasting away at Swampy."

Ellen hid a smile as she got up and moved over towards the bed. "It's an assault rifle," she shrugged. "More for long range kills. Not exactly its intended use." She glanced back over at Jo. "Swampy? You two named it?" she said mockingly, changing the subject in her usual display of modesty. 'This isn't gonna be like the time the neighbors got that piglet and you walked him every day 'til he was fully grown and then at Thanksgiving…" She wrinkled her forehead in concentration. "What did you name him again?" she thought out loud.

Jo laughed. "Curly," she supplied. "I was six and I named him Curly, and you should have warned me they were planning on eating him."

Ellen shrugged again. "Your Dad thought it would be a better lesson learned through experience." She sighed at the mention of her husband and pulled a stool over to the bedside. She placed a hand on Colby's forehead and gasped at the heat radiating from him. "Jesus, he's burning up," she said, all traces of humour suddenly gone.

Jo watched, impressed as Ellen switched instantly into her familiar 'motherly mode'. The elder Harvelle had never been one to take crap from anyone, but had an instinctive knack of distinguishing the younger, more troubled hunters that she deemed needed some mothering from the just plain nasty lost causes. The Winchester brothers had fallen heavily into the former category and her mother had kept in touch with them long after Jo had stopped waiting for that elusive phone call from Dean. Jo could see the lines of worry on her mother's face now as she ran a damp cloth over Colby's forehead before propping his head up enough to get him to drink the seed-mixture she'd prepared. This task was made far more difficult by the fact that he was now completely unconscious, but Ellen succeeded and shot Jo a triumphant smile of encouragement as the last of it disappeared down his throat.

The next half hour or so was spent in relative silence as Jo kept a close eye out front and Ellen tended to Colby. She removed his t-shirt, gasping at the hideous state of the shoulder wound. As instructed by Rufus, the remaining bulbs were boiled in water using the small gas stove the cabin was supplied with and Ellen spread the mixture over the brown, leathery skin surrounding the bite wound.

Thankfully, Colby's fever seemed to lessen slightly, though he was clearly far from out of the woods. The leathery patch of skin stopped spreading, or at least slowed its rate of expansion to less than they could track in the span of half an hour, but didn't seem to be receding. Not all they had been hoping for, but it was something at least.

Jo remained by the window, stun gun in her hand as she peered out into the night. "Why isn't it attacking?" she wondered out loud.

"It doesn't have to," Ellen answered. "It's probably figuring it'll just wait around outside until Colby changes and then either kills us or eats us himself."

"But he's not going to, is he?" Jo asked nervously, looking for some reassurance. "Change that is, not eat us," she added.

Ellen sighed. "I don't know, honey. I don't know. If he does…"

"He won't." Jo decided she wasn't going to entertain that thought. There was no way in Hell she was cutting Colby's heart out.

There was a brief silence, long enough that Jo realized her mother wasn't as optimistic of her friend's fate.

"You know, after he got bitten, he told me to take Gary's bike and leave him here," she told her mother, as if convincing Ellen that Colby was worth saving would somehow make it possible. "But I couldn't do it."

Ellen just nodded at the last part, returning her attention to her patient. "That doesn't surprise me," she said matter-of-factly. "You've got so much of your father in you, Joanna Beth."

At the mention of her father, every reason Jo had ever had for wanting to be a hunter was brought to the surface and she decided now was as good a time as any to try and have a civil discussion about it. "So why did you fight me when I wanted to be a hunter?" she asked, managing for once to keep any anger or resentment out of the question. "That's what Dad was and you were okay with it."

"No, I _**was**_ okay with it," Ellen countered with surprising calm. "Until he got killed and then I wasn't so okay with it."

Her mother's voice was so laden with emotion that Jo couldn't answer right away, instead looking back out the window to collect her thoughts.

That's when she saw it. Swampy running full speed up the steps of the porch towards the door. "Mom!" was all she got out in warning before the heavy, wooden door shook with the force of impact, sliding the table a foot or so across the floor. The door now ajar, the Nokken's second shove forced it open enough for the beast to make it through.

Jo was there to meet it, stun gun in hand. She charged forward, ramming the weapon into the Nokken's side as she dodged a blow. A second blow from the creature, however, sent her reeling into the woodstove again. Annoyed that slamming into the hard, metal and damn-inconvenient piece of furniture was becoming a habit, she bit back a cry from the pain in her side and scrambled to her feet. She now had not only Colby's life but her mother's life too at risk and no amount of pain was going to keep her down with those stakes.

Her worry about protecting her mother may have been slightly premature. She looked up to see Ellen swing the empty rifle hard at the Nokken, making solid enough contact with its head to cause it to hesitate. The elder Harvelle then charged forward, ducking low just as her daughter had done, to jab the electrodes of the stun gun she had been armed with into the beast's stomach.

Unfortunately, Ellen was unable to maintain the contact for more than a second and a half as the beast's deadly arms batter her away as it had done Jo a few seconds earlier. Jo yelped in fear as she watched her mother slam against the far wall and charged forward before the Nokken could attack the downed woman further.

But the Nokken wasn't interested in Ellen any more than it was Jo. It was clear the beast's only focus was the hunter lying on the bed completely oblivious to the chaos around him. It reached for Colby and grabbed him by the arm before turning around. It swatted at the approaching blonde, trying to keep her at bay while it made its way to the door with its prize, Shelby snarling and nipping furiously at its heels. It had only dragged Colby a few feet off the bed before panic curled its controlling tendrils around Jo's thoughts and she leapt forward with an almost primal scream, somehow launching herself onto its back and jabbing the stun gun into its neck.

It screamed and instantly let go of Colby's arm, dropping him to the floor with a thud. As it raised its arms to free itself from the attacker on its back, Ellen moved in, jabbing it in the now-exposed stomach. It screeched some more and started spinning, trying to free itself from the two sources of pain simultaneously. Jo jumped free just as the Nokken was about to slam its back into the cabin wall and Ellen jumped back as it swung both club hands down at her, just clearing its reach. It froze in place for a second, eyeing the two women in a momentary standoff, all three hunched in predatory stances.

It eventually turned and ran back outside, disappearing once again around the side of the cabin.

"That's right!" Jo couldn't help but yell after it, the adrenaline pumping her heart furiously in her chest. "Go find your own man, bitch!"

Mother and daughter stood where they were for a second, both breathing heavily and staring at the other. Finally, they both burst out laughing, Ellen nearing hysterics as she shook her head and pulled herself together. Jo grinned sheepishly, rolling her shaking shoulders stiffly to try and dissipate the pain from the latest battle as she caught her breath.

Their laughter was short-lived, however, as their attention turned to Colby, who let out a weak groan from where he now lay on the floor. They both moved towards him but Ellen pointed to the door, which remained wide open. "I got him," she assured her daughter. "You get the table."

Jo pushed the door shut again and heaved the table in front of it once more as Ellen struggled to get Colby back on the bed. This time she rooted through the cupboard on the far wall and gave a triumphant cry when she found a half-full box of carpentry nails. She ripped the cabinet doors off their hinges and carried them over to the window, scrunching up her face in thought.

"I need to go to your truck, Mom," she announced suddenly.

"What?" Ellen looked over sharply from where she was redressing Colby's shoulder with the boiled Trillium-juice. "What for?"

"It attacked," she told her mother. "That's a good sign."

The elder Harvelle clearly wasn't following her daughter's logic for she didn't look convinced.

"It must know he's fighting the poison," she continued. "Otherwise it would have waited outside for him to change, like you said. It's obviously intelligent, I mean, it disabled your truck. It knows he should have turned by now. If it gets him away from us or bites him again, Mom, he's done. I need your truck's battery. If I don't rig something up to keep it out…" she let the sentence trail off, not needing to spell out that not only was Colby done but that they probably would be too.

Jo saw the understanding spread slowly across her mother's face and identified the exact moment acceptance won over blind protectiveness. Ellen rose to her feet and pulled the stun gun out of her jeans waistline. "Okay," she nodded grimly. "I stand at the door, make sure the bitch doesn't try to sneak in past us, and you go grab the battery."

Jo nodded and pulled the table a couple of feet back again, panting with the exertion and wondering how many more times she was going to have to move the goddamn thing. She looked both ways carefully before darting down the stairs and hauling open the truck cab door to grab the appropriate tools from the toolbox her mother always had in there. She scooted around to the still-open hood and got to work, glad for once that she had taken an interest in cars enough that she at least knew her way around an engine. She never looked up but was acutely aware of her mother standing in the cabin's doorway, eyes peeled for any sign of a threat to her daughter. Like a mamma bear protecting her cub, she chuckled to herself. She hauled out a few extra wires along with the battery, still piecing together in her mind what she was going to do to keep Swampy at bay and away from Colby, before dashing back up the stairs and into the cabin.

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

_**Author's Note**__: Okay, hopefully nobody thought I went over the top with Ellen showing up with an assault rifle and detachable mini grenade launcher. According to the trusty internet, it's actually a weapon used commonly by the American troops in Iraq (also used by the dashing Sgt. Brad Colbert in Generation Kill, a series I HIGHLY recommend to anyone) and I figured it wouldn't be too far fetched that resourceful hunters could get their hands on one. With a giant swamp monster threatening her daughter, Ellen would have brought the biggest, baddest weapon she had. _

_Oh, and if anyone's curious of how I envision Colby to look, check out my avatar and add a cowboy hat. _


	11. A Mother's Love, Ellen's POV

_**Author's Note**__:_ Okay_, first I have to say soooo sorry for the super long delay in getting this chapter posted – it's been almost 2 ½ weeks! I know I hate waiting when I'm following a story so I have to apologize sincerely for that. RL got crazy. If it's any consolation, the next chapter is pretty much done so I should get it proofread and posted by tomorrow. And thanks so much to all you who are reading and especially reviewing - you have no idea how much it is appreciated._

_**Secondly, I KNOW I posted this chapter last night because people have reviewed it already but for some reason it's gone so I am reposting it. Sorry for those of you who will get a double alert :( Not sure what's wrong with our beloved ff-net.**_

_**Previously:**__ Jo hauled out a few extra wires along with the truck's battery, still piecing together in her mind what she was going to do to keep Swampy at bay and away from Colby, before dashing back up the stairs and into the cabin._

**Chapter 11 A Mother's Love - Ellen's POV**

Ellen remained on the stool by the bed, continuously dabbing a cool, damp cloth on Colby's forehead and chest, trying to keep his fevered body within survivable parameters. She watched Jo work without interfering, her heart swelling with wordless pride at the sight.

Jo placed the cabinet doors over the window, using the handle of a large knife to hammer the nails into the window jamb around the perimeter. She left a deliberate crack between them allowing her to maintain her lookout so they wouldn't be caught off guard by another attack by Swampy. The young hunter worked quickly and efficiently and without complaint. This, of course, didn't surprise Ellen, as her daughter had always thrown herself completely into every task at hand, tackling everything in life with the same determination that Ellen remembered so vividly from Bill.

With the window boarded up, Jo hauled out her stun gun and sat at the table. Ellen noticed she positioned herself so she could keep watch out through the crack in the boards. Using the blade of Bill's that the twelve year old girl in pigtails had claimed after finding it under the seat of the truck he used for his hunting trips, she unscrewed the case of the stun gun, prying it carefully open on the table. Ellen took note of Jo's cool professionalism as the young hunter tinkered with the gun's insides, explaining the modifications she was making to its components as she worked.

Jo was saying something about stun guns having high voltage but that it was the low current, or amperage, that prevented the gun from doing any lasting damage. Ellen was barely listening to the words, her mind suddenly reeling with doubts about the plan she had been harbouring to discourage Jo from pursuing life as a hunter. Apparently, tightening some coil and making a couple of other adjustments that the elder woman admitted to herself sailed way over her head, the current would be increased and the guns should have more effect on Swampy.

"It won't last as long," Jo told her mother, her face screwed up in concentration, "But since we can never seem to hold it for more than a few seconds without getting swatted anyway, the lasting power isn't as important as the damage we can do."

"Where'd you learn to do that?" Ellen asked, her voice not hiding how impressed she was.

Jo looked up and grinned at her. "Well, I guess those useless courses in that semester of college you blew half your savings on weren't a complete waste of time after all."

"I highly doubt they taught you how to juice up a stun gun," Ellen chuckled.

"Nope, but they did teach me the theories behind how they work in first year physics," Jo explained. "Guess I'm finally applying that crap to a real-life situation."

Ellen was about to make a comment about how much more 'useless crap' Jo could learn if she finished her college degree but reigned herself in, realizing it was pointless. A renewed surge of pride and respect hit her as she watched her daughter continue to work.

Jo was a natural born hunter. Determined, brave, resourceful, stubborn. She was everything that every good hunter that had passed through the Roadhouse was in spades. How had Ellen missed that all these years?

Jo looked up for a brief second and caught Ellen's eye, flashing her a quick smile before returning her attention to the second stun gun she was modifying.

_That's how._ Because more than all those other things, when she looked at the young woman before her, Ellen saw her daughter. The baby girl who meant more to her than life itself. Nothing was ever going to change that but Ellen knew she needed to accept all the other things Jo was.

And Jo was a hunter through and through. Some people just had it in their blood. Between being born with it coursing through her veins and being raised in a bar continually full of hunters, Ellen realized how incredibly naïve she'd been to even think Jo would stick to the research side of hunting, helping gather information and suss out possible hunts for real hunters to deal with. Ellen had been content with that job and had felt pride in doing it well and helping many hunters over the years, but Jo wasn't Ellen. Jo was Bill. A small, female, blonde version of her father. Ellen's inability to accept this so far had almost cost them their relationship.

When Jo had first left the Roadhouse, storming out on the tail end of one of the worst fights they had ever had, Ellen had been furious. Furious at the Winchesters for using her daughter as bait and giving her a taste of the hard-earned victory of a successful hunt. Furious at her dead husband for being their daughter's hero and idol and glamorizing the life of a hunter with his animated retelling of his hunts. Furious at Ash for not siding with her and helping keep Jo at home where Ellen could look out for her. Furious at Jo for not wanting all the good things Ellen wanted for her, the things Ellen was offering her with a college education and a taste of normal. But most of all, she was furious at herself for exposing Jo to it all in the first place. For not hiding the ugly, hunting side of Bill's life. If Jo had never known monsters existed, she would be in her fourth year of college right now, safe and oblivious.

All that anger had quickly turned to worry but the damage had been done. Jo had left and now barely spoke to her mother. Their infrequent phone calls inevitably turned into arguments as Ellen's worry always seemed to get all twisted and come out as anger and bossiness.

Ellen had continued her life as she always had, running the Roadhouse and helping hunters any way she could. She felt she owed it to Bill to continue the life they'd started and help out his fellow hunters. That, of course, had all changed the day she had gone on a supply run and demons burned the place down, Ash along with it. Jo had returned to town for his funeral but, even in their shared grief, they hadn't been able to find their way to a civil conversation.

She hadn't seen her daughter since until two nights ago. She'd received word of her from time to time from passing hunters who had run into her in their travels, but Jo never came to visit. Ellen had tried to make a life for herself without the Roadhouse by getting a job running a country bar in town. She had still helped other hunters whenever she could, growing closer to Dean and Sam in the process as well as their friend Bobby Singer, but she had never felt right. There had always been something missing. She tried to fool herself into thinking it was the bar but it was Jo. It had always been Jo. Ellen needed her family.

Word on the hunting grapevine these days was not good. Something big was brewing. Nobody seemed to know what it was but it hadn't ended with Dean Winchester going to Hell. Ellen listened to the hunters' stories and theories and finally decided that if all Hell was going to break loose, she was going to be at Jo's side when it did. Her daughter was smart and capable but everybody needed someone to watch their back.

If the elder Harvelle needed one more justification to cement her newly reformed opinion of Jo's capability, she got it. Still explaining out loud what she was doing as she worked, Jo took the truck's battery and placed it on the floor in front of the door under the table. She ran wires across the doorway near the bottom, pushing them to the outside of the door and sliding them up about a foot. Using components from the third stun gun that had run out of juice earlier, she explained that the trip wire would give Swampy a short but violent jolt if it tried to get in, giving them the jump on it.

Ellen just smiled, unable to speak any words that would properly convey the pride she was feeling.

Once finished, Jo took up lookout duty again as Ellen continued tending to the injured man in the bed. He had been mostly out since her arrival, only waking briefly to mumble incoherently, too weak to do much but toss head from side to side. Every couple of minutes his face would twist into a look of silent agony and his back would arch off the bed slightly, his breath hitching in pain. He was still burning up and Ellen realized that for all they knew, his internal organs could be changing or mutating and stopping the transformation may actually end up killing him anyway.

She kept her mounting fears over his fate to herself. It was apparent that, even though she'd only met him a couple of days ago, Jo had formed a solid friendship with him that Ellen hadn't seen the likes of very often from her daughter. In fact, growing up, Ash had been Jo's best friend. Eight years her senior with an IQ of 198 and absolutely no clue about social normalcy – not exactly the typical teenager's BFF. There hadn't been many others, even fewer her age.

She resoaked the cloth to cool it off, wringing it out before placing it again on the cowboy's forehead. He reacted this time, turning his head towards her and fluttering his lashes, green eyes trying to focus on hers.

"Hey there," she greeted the dazed look. "You're gonna be fine, ya hear?" she assured him, dabbing the cloth along his brow.

"Mom?" he rasped, his face looking confused for a second before relaxed look of peace came over it and his hand twitched towards hers.

Ellen's heartstrings seized into a tight knot of pity and sympathy. She took his hand and smiled. "You just rest now, honey," she said soothingly, not refuting the mistaken identity. "You're gonna be just fine."

He smiled weakly before his eyes closed again and Ellen's heart ached as she swallowed past the lump in her throat. God, he looked so young. Hell, he _**was**_ so young. Way too young to be within an inch of either dying or turning into a swamp monster. Come to think of it, Jo was way too young to be forced to either watch her friend to die or kill him herself if he transformed.

Why did it seem hunters these days just kept getting younger? Why did these kids, these _**children**_, insist on becoming hunters? They should be worried about their GPA and college keg parties, not fighting demons and vampires. They were all so idealistic and ready for action. Ellen had seen too many young hunters die, many of whom didn't even have anyone left to mourn them. Those that survived became jaded, hard-edged, and angry from years of violence and loss. They became John Winchesters, Rufus Turners, and Gordon Walkers.

She squeezed Colby's hand, her motherly instinct working at full tilt now, much like it had when those two Winchester boys had walked into her bar, all broken and grief-ridden after the death of their father. Her thoughts drifted to Dean, as they often did since she had heard the news of his demise. His death and the horrific circumstances surrounding it had come as a blow to Ellen. It wasn't just unfortunate and sad but everything about it had been so damn wrong, so damn unfair.

Dean had died too young. Sam may as well have died alongside his brother for Ellen was sure that wherever he was, only an empty husk remained. She doubted either of those boys had ever really had a chance to enjoy life before fate, with a good nudge from demons, had ripped it away from both of them.

She looked back down at the young hunter on the bed. He was sleeping in what could be briefly mistaken as a peaceful slumber was it not for the sheen of sweat on his body or his shallow, raspy breaths. She inhaled slowly in quiet determination. No. This kid wasn't dying. Not tonight and not on her watch. She glanced up at Jo who was looking out the window, her mouth set in a tight line of grim resolve.

And not if Jo had anything to do with it.

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

_**Author's Note**__: Sorry this was such a short chapter. I had wanted to do the story in both Jo's and Ellen's points of view but the story ended up being so much more Jo than Ellen that starting to switch back and forth at this point didn't seem like the right thing to do from a technical standpoint. But I couldn't skip Ellen's POV altogether so I decided to give her a chapter to herself before going back to Jo's POV to finish the story off. Like I said earlier, I should have the next chapter up tomorrow._


	12. We All Go Boom

_**Previously**__: Ellen looked back down at the young hunter on the bed. No. This kid wasn't dying. Not tonight and not on her watch. She glanced up at Jo who was looking out the window with her mouth set in a tight line of grim resolve. And not if Jo had anything to do with it._

**Chapter 12 - We All Go Boom**

More than three hours passed with no attack from the Nokken. Jo began to feel optimistic about all of them making it through the night, even Colby. His feverish muttering had ceased and his sweat-drenched body was finally cooling off. The shallow, raspy breaths had evened out to a slower, smoother sound and even the leathery patch of skin covering his shoulder seemed to be receding. The edges of the brown area were turning back to a reddish colour and the center portion was beginning to scab over. It would take a while to heal and he would probably have a good-sized scar for life, but she was hopeful he would live that life as a human and not some rank-smelling swamp monster.

Her Mom had just finished giving her an update from where the older woman still sat by his bedside, dabbing his head and neck with a cool, damp cloth. Jo couldn't help but smile in appreciation of her mother's help and genuine concern for the cowboy's fate, despite his apparent distasteful heritage.

"You know," she said from her guard position by the boarded up window, "His father left him and his Mom when he was twelve. If anyone raised him, it was Rufus, not Wyatt Hutchins."

Her mother offered a guilty smile in acknowledgement. "I kinda figured as much. I'd heard stories about Rufus but never gave them much thought before on account he was always so unfriendly."

"I remember him," Jo said. "Barely. He used to come to the bar didn't he? Before he retired."

Ellen nodded. "He used to work with other hunters, including Wyatt Hutchins." Her face drew into a scowl at the mention of Colby's father. "That man was a real piece of work. He didn't have the first clue about what watching someone else's back meant. Hunting was all about the glory and taking the credit for himself. I knew your boy here couldn't be anything like his father the moment you said he told you to leave on Gary's bike."

"No offense Mom," Jo chided, "But you should have known that right away when I said I was working with him. I'm not some naïve schoolgirl, you know. I would never work with anyone like this Wyatt guy."

Ellen nodded. "You're right,' she conceded. "On both counts."

"So why would Rufus work with him?" Jo asked, hiding her surprise and delight that her mother had just acknowledged her capability to a certain degree.

"Well, that's where it gets a bit soap opera-ish," Ellen smiled. "See, I had heard the rumors that Rufus was sweet on Wyatt's wife but didn't really believe them, Rufus being such a rude hard-ass and all."

"That's how I remember him," Jo agreed. "But he seems real friendly to Colby."

"There must be another side to Crazy old Rufus Turner after all," Ellen continued. "The way the rumors went, he asked Wyatt's wife to come live with him after Wyatt abandoned her altogether but she refused, saying she wouldn't ever be with another hunter. He said he would quit and even retired for her but she apparently still refused him, saying 'a hunter's a hunter whether or not they're actually hunting'."

Ellen gave a little chuckle and looked over at her daughter. "Words I've come to realize are the God's honest truth."

Jo remained silent, realizing her mother was talking about her. Could her stubborn Mom really be accepting Jo's chosen path?

"You're your father's daughter, Joanna Beth," Ellen said quietly. "I didn't want this life for you because it's not a happy life. It's dangerous and violent and ugly and usually ends way too soon. I'd tell you to ask Dean about life as a hunter, but we both know what the life gave him."

Jo turned her gaze back out the window, her thoughts drifting to the elder Winchester. "He did that for Sam," she said finally. "And he did it willingly. I think was brave and selfless and honourable."

"It was all of those things, honey," Ellen agreed. "But it's unfair as Hell that he was put in that situation to start with. Had he grown up to be a mechanic or a bartender and gotten himself a nice little wife, he wouldn't be…where he is now. Brave and honourable won't help him now. And it won't help Sam."

"Have you heard from Sam?" Jo asked hopefully. She cared about both Winchester brothers equally now that she had worked her way past her little crush on Dean.

"No," Ellen admitted, a hint of sadness to her voice. "Bobby says he just dropped off the face of the Earth. Cut himself off from everybody he knew."

"Grief'll do that to you," Jo quipped, deciding she wanted to steer the conversation to a less painful subject. "So what did Rufus do when Mrs. Hutchins refused him again?"

Ellen made a face at the obvious deflection, but relented, if only momentarily to finish her story. "He took drinkin' to a whole new level, same as most heartbroken hunters," she offered. "Became quite the scotch connoisseur and Vermont's _**un**_friendliest recluse." She moved the conversation back to Jo's comment about grief. "I heard about Matt Graves," she blurted.

Jo closed her eyes as she exhaled slowly. "Mom, I don't want to talk about Matt," she said honestly.

"It's been what, six months now?" Her mother wasn't letting the subject drop.

Jo just nodded.

"Word was a wraith got him."

Jo nodded again. Her mother was right, it had been six months since a wraith had killed her first real boyfriend. Some days it still felt like yesterday and some days it felt like it had been years since she'd woken up next to him, but Jo missed Matt _**every**_ day.

"I'm sorry, Jo." Her mother sounded sincere. "How long were you two together?" she pressed, her tone full of sympathy and understanding.

Encouraged by how well they had been getting along the past few hours, Jo decided to give her mother an inch. Some basic information about her and Matt couldn't hurt. It was a subject they had never returned to after her mother's initial rant about falling in love with a hunter when she had first caught wind of Jo's new beau.

"Three months," she answered truthfully.

"You two living together?" There was no judgment in Ellen's voice.

Jo nodded. "Pretty much," she answered. "I mean, he came and went, him being a full time hunter and not having to worry about holding down a job, but mostly he stayed at my place."

"Were you with him when it happened?" Ellen asked quietly.

Jo shook her head. "No," she said softly as she stared out the window.

Ellen didn't press for details and Jo wondered if maybe that was why she suddenly felt ready to give them.

"He was doing a solo gig in Witchita," she offered. "Several bodies had been found in alleys with small stab wounds in the neck. Mostly transients and junkies, so the cops weren't making a big deal out of it. He went down there to suss it out and when I didn't hear from him for a few days, I followed. It took me a day and a half but I found him in an alley, under a pile of garbage…" her voice hitched, "…with a hole in the base of his skull."

"Honey, I'm so sorry," Ellen repeated.

Jo nodded in appreciation of the sentiment. "I worked the case and I killed that sucker," she continued vehemently. "And then I drove him to his family in Utah and we gave him a proper salt and burn."

"Howcome you felt you couldn't tell me this before?" Ellen asked. There was no accusation in her tone.

"Coz, Mom, you start every conversation with how the life of a hunter is full of pain and loss yada yada yada. Trust me, I get that. I got that when my Dad died when I was seven."

Ellen was silent for a moment. "And yet you still want to be a hunter?" she asked softly.

Jo looked her squarely in the eyes. "Now more than ever," she said confidently. Her gaze drifted past her mother and fell on the sleeping man on the bed. "Nobody else is dying," she added. "Not if I can help it."

She turned her attention back out the window and the room was silent for a few minutes. The sky of the eastern horizon was starting to lighten over the tree line.

"It's almost dawn," she pointed out. "Swampy's either gonna get real desperate soon or give up and go home."

"My money's on the first one," Ellen warned.

Jo barely had time to nod in agreement before she saw the Nokken charging up the steps.

"It's here!" she cried out, bracing herself for whatever came next. In her peripheral, she noticed her Mom getting to her feet and readying the modified stun gun in her hand but Jo's eyes remained trained on the front door, which shook suddenly with a shuddering bang. The beast must have predicted the table would be back in place because this time it hit the door with such tremendous force that it flew all the way open, knocking the large wooden table over on its side and out of the way.

Seeing there was no way in Hell she could have stopped the momentum of that charge, Jo was extremely relieved when the Nokken came to an abrupt halt of its own accord just inside the doorway. She realized its leg had indeed struck the juiced-up tripwire she had rigged across the doorway and fought the urge to yell out in triumph. Had it not worked, there was no doubt in Jo's mind the creature would have reached Colby and this time, it would have bitten first and dragged away later.

The beast jerked violently and screamed into the air, staggering its way past the booby-trap. Both Harvelles were quick on the draw and two juiced-up stun guns were rammed instantly into its sides, multiplying its agony. Its body jolted but both women held fast. Its arms swung wildly around, swatting at its attackers with little aim or precision as it continued howling. Jo was just daring to feel a glimmer of hope that this would take it out when she was forced to pull back to avoid being pummeled by the beast's club-like arms. Her mother, however, held her ground, continuing to zap Swampy until Jo regained her balance and lunged forward again.

It was fast, violent, and scary as Hell, but after only a few seconds, the beast sank to its knees. Jo and Ellen pressed forward even more, both taking hard cuffs on the shoulders and arms but managing to keep the stun guns in place and the current flowing into the beast's leathery skin.

Finally, as the first Nokken had done for Colby, this one fell the ground with a thud as its back landed on the wooden floor. It was barely moving save the spasmic jerks of its limbs. Jo's stun gun fizzled and died as it fell and she tossed it aside, moving quickly to her duffel to retrieve the large knife she had placed next to it in readiness for this very occasion. Ellen's stun gun ran out of juice just as Jo reached the beast and her mother threw her a worried look.

"It'll get back up," Jo acknowledged with a curt nod. "I've gotta cut its heart out before it recovers."

Ellen nodded and took a step back, giving Jo the space she needed to swing the blade sharply downwards in a stabbing motion at the beasts leather-covered heart. The tip of the blade barely penetrated the thick skin. She raised the blade and tried again and again and again.

"It's not going in!" she cried in frustration and disappointment as she stopped her efforts long enough to scan her eyes around the room for something to hammer the hilt of the knife with.

"How did you do it the last time?" Ellen asked urgently.

"Colby had a friggin' three-foot sword," Jo explained, grabbing the thick, wooden leg of the busted bedside table that the cowboy had destroyed over Swampy's head earlier in the evening. She placed the knife's tip above the beast's heart, gripping the hilt with one hand as she pounded it repeatedly with the chunk of wood. She was swinging with all her might and making very little progress when the beast suddenly lurched and a loud moan escaped its throat. Its arm began twitching on the floor.

"It's coming round!" Jo exclaimed, picking up her already mad pace and hammering desperately on the knife hilt. "Fuck, Mom, it's like Kevlar!" she yelled, her voice now betraying a hint of panic.

"We need to keep her down until you get that blade in," Ellen said calmly, moving over to the kitchen. Jo kept pounding at the knife but it was getting more and more difficult to hold in place as the huge monster was now starting to squirm. She looked up as her mother approached again carrying a bulky-looking object in her hands.

The tank from the gas stove, Jo realized, trying to piece together what her mother was planning. She soon found out, however, as Ellen practically ripped the stove's nozzle off the top of the tank and pressed a narrow blade into the opening. A sharp hissing sound erupted and Ellen aimed the tank's leaking opening towards the awakening Nokken, practically pressing it against its skin. As the gas shot out, it immediately came in contact with the cool, moist, leathery skin of the beast and condensated into a liquid, mixing with the slimy moisture the Nokken seemed to secrete.

Jo grinned devilishly but kept hammering at the knife. She had considered the gas tank earlier but had been unable to figure out a way to use it that didn't involve them all blowing up or the cabin catching on fire. She had found out that a spurt of flame was useless on the very first night she had faced the first Nokken because her homemade blow-torch had simply fizzled in the beast's moisture. Ellen's move was risky, but liquefying the fuel on the creature's skin would work more like gasoline, igniting the Nokken and not the air in the room.

Swampy was now thrashing about wildly and struggling to sit up by the time Ellen had emptied the canister. The vicious and deadly arms were swinging again and one brutal strike knocked Jo a few feet backwards across the floor. During her painful tumble, she lost her grip on the knife.

"Light it!" Jo cried as she struggled to right herself. The beast was on its knees and lunging now towards Ellen, who took a hesitant step backwards, lighter in hand, but made no move to flick the flame on.

"Not yet," the elder Harvelle said, her voice still astoundingly cool. "Gotta let the gas in the air dissipate first," she explained. "Otherwise we all go boom."

A few more seconds had Swampy staggering to her feet and Ellen finally gestured to Jo, pointing towards Colby. Jo nodded and ran around to the bed, hauling the unconscious man off onto the floor on the far side, just in case. The air was still laden with the smell of fuel.

She looked up in time to see Ellen flick the lighter on with an ominous click and thrust it forward towards Swampy's chest. The beast instantly ignited, the flame quickly spreading across its chest and enveloping its head, the areas Ellen had most concentrated the gas. It screamed, arms flailing as it fell once again to its knees. Ellen and Jo moved in simultaneously, both grabbing the largest, heaviest object within their reach and smashing them into the beast's head. For Jo, that was the wooden table leg. For Ellen, it was the empty assault rifle.

The Nokken fell to the floor, still burning, still screaming, and writhing in pain. This time, Jo decided to make better use of its down time to give them a more permanent advantage. She drew her father's small blade from the sheath in the back of her jean's waistline and stabbed visciously at its eyes. With quick, sharp jabs to avoid getting burnt, she sank the blade into both of the yellow slits, eliciting an even more bloodcurling scream that had the hairs on the back of the young hunter's neck standing on end.

Eventually, its arms stopped flailing and its body once again stilled save for the slow rise and fall of its chest.

"It's still alive," Ellen breathed, her tone one of frustration and disbelief. "We need to get that heart out fast."

Jo just nodded, wishing once again she had Colby's sword handy. She grabbed the same knife as before and went back to work, this time using the empty fuel tank as a hammer. To her surprise, and extreme relief, the blade sank deep on the third try. The flame must have weakened the still-smouldering skin. She hammered away until she had a decent sized hole and, as she had done before, stuck her hand in and yanked the bloody heart out.

Her mother was ready, holding out a plastic bag for her to dispose of the heart in and Jo couldn't suppress a giggle at the absurdity of the gesture. Why bother trying to keep the place tidy when it literally looked like a bomb had gone off inside the small room? Only her mother would worry about getting a few drops of blood on the floor when there was a huge four-hundred pound carcass rotting in the middle of it.

She rolled back on her haunches to survey the damage as she caught her breath. The door was hanging crooked off its top hinge. The large table was overturned in the middle of the kitchen area. The floorboards were charred black all around the huge swamp monster lying face up with wisps of gag-inducing smoke rising from its bubbled and burnt skin. Pieces of the bedside table lay scattered throughout the room, as did various weapons from stun gun to knives to fully automatic rifles. The bed had been moved at some point during the scuffle and was positioned askew with all the covers tipped off the far side.

Looking around the battle-torn room, Jo suddenly realized what else was missing from the bed. "Colby!" she exclaimed, jumping up and hopping over the mattress in two springing steps to find him still lying on the floor behind it where she had left him. She grabbed his arm and was trying to pull him back up when Ellen suddenly appeared on his other flank, helping her hoist him onto the bed.

"Tell me honestly, Mom," she said as she stood back and let Ellen rearrange the pillows under his head, her mind having already forgotten the dead monster on the floor behind her in her renewed worry for her friend. "Is he gonna be okay?"

Ellen turned to face her and looked like she was going to give her a casual, generic, positive response but stopped, catching her eye and holding her gaze for a few seconds before letting out a long, slow sigh. "It doesn't look good, honey," she said finally. "I think his insides are all messed up."

Jo swallowed, unable to respond.

Ellen continued. "Unless Rufus gets here soon and whatever concoction he said he was bringing works a miracle."

The young blonde nodded in solemn acceptance. "Well then," she said finally, "Let's hope Rufus hurries his grumpy ass up."

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_**Author's Note**: I have to say thanks to those of you who reviewed the last chapter. You were particularly kind and you all totally made my day! Brunax5, I hadn't really thought about doing another fic with Jo (or Colby) but I am enjoying it so much more than I thought I would that I wouldn't rule it out altogther. But yes, this fic has a chapter and an epilogue left, so its almost done._

_Hope you all don't mind that I gave Rufus a back story - He's one of the few characters Kripke left alive and I do hope we see him in season 6, and I decided to indulge myself and give him a bit of a softer side since the canon version hasn't shown that yet. I LOVE Bobby and maybe I'm missing him in this story because I guess Rufus is now Colby's Bobby. He makes a guest appearance in the next chapter since in Good God Y'all, he and the Harvelles seemed on good terms so I figured I'd weave that thread in also._


	13. Partners?

_**Previously**__: The young blonde nodded in solemn acceptance of Ellen's evaluation of Colby's condition. "Well then," she said finally, "Let's hope Rufus hurries his grumpy ass up."_

**Chapter 13 - Partners?**

Not five minutes later, they heard the rumble of an approaching truck. They both exited quickly to stand on the porch, breathing sighs of relief when they recognized Rufus behind the wheel. The pickup bounced its way over the rough terrain and came to a skidding halt next to Ellen's disabled truck.

The older black man jumped out, surveying the damage to the dangling cabin door as he ran up the steps two at a time. He stopped at the top and addressed the Harvelle women curtly, the fear evident in his voice. "Cole?" he demanded.

Ellen nodded towards the cabin door. "He's inside," she told him. "He's not gettin' any worse but he hasn't improved either," she added though she was talking to his back by the third word as the hunter had already raced past her.

The women followed him inside. "His breathin's still real shallow and his heartbeat's all over the place," Ellen continued her assessment. "He's burnin' a terrible fever and he's been in and out of consciousness all night. Mostly out."

Rufus stepped over the dead Nokken with barely a glance downwards and planted himself on the stool by the bed, pulling out a small green, glass bottle from his pocket and unscrewing the lid quickly.

_( - - - I Will by White Lion - - - )_

"Listen here you little troublemaker," he addressed the sleeping hunter gruffly, though the genuine affection oozed from every word. "This stuff costs a fortune so you better make this worth my while." He reached his hand behind Colby's head and lifted, at the same time tipping the bottle up to the hunter's lips.

A few drops worked their way into Colby's mouth before Rufus got any reaction from him. His lashes fluttered in an attempt to open and he pulled his head to the side in an effort to escape the foul-smelling liquid being poured down his throat. Jo knew it was foul because she could smell it from where she was standing four feet behind Rufus. If it smelled that bad, it had to taste even worse.

"Hey now, boy," Rufus scolded. "You stop yer squirming. For once do as I tell you and quit complaining." Colby fell still save for the struggle to open his eyes.

"Ruf's?" he whispered.

"Yeah, that's right," Rufus answered, his voice softening. "You gone and dragged me out of bed at two in the morning."

The ends of Colby's lips turned upwards in a weak, barely perceptible smile. "M'sorry," he croaked.

"Never mind you're sorry," Rufus answered, again bringing the bottle to the hunter's lips. "Just drink this an' we'll be even."

Colby screwed up his face. "Stinks," he managed.

"You and yer delicate palette," Rufus huffed. "It matches yer girly long hair an' all. Now stop yer whinin'and _**drink**_."

Colby obeyed and swallowed most of the bottle with Rufus's help before passing out mid sip, his head lolling to the side in Rufus's big hand. The older hunter sighed and lowered the younger man's head back onto the pillow before pulling his hand free to feel Colby's forehead. After a moment he turned to face the Harvelles behind him.

"I reckon we'll know if he's gonna be alright within a half hour or so," he said gruffly, an obvious attempt to cover his worry.

"What was that?" Jo asked, pointing to the glass bottle.

"A mixture of Trillium, Leopard's Bane, Red Belladonna berries, and a couple other things brewed together for a while with some black magic thrown in to boot. Word is it works on all sorts of supernatural poisons, including Nokken." He turned back to glance at Colby. "Guess we'll find out if the word is right," he grumbled.

"Well," Ellen said suddenly, tapping Jo on the arm. "We're gonna go build a fire to burn this damn thing." She gave Swampy a sharp kick and turned back to Rufus. "You stay in here and watch him, huh?" she gestured towards Colby.

Rufus nodded, clearly appreciating the elder Harvelle's thoughtfulness. He never moved from the stool by the bed as the women stepped around the dead mass on the floor and went outside.

Jo knew exactly where to find the brush as she and Colby had dumped the extra they had gathered from their multiple 'just in case' pyres from the previous night. It didn't take her and Ellen long to pile up enough to burn the second Nokken.

Jo eyed the woods a little nervously as they walked back up the steps to fetch the body. "I sure as Hell hope there isn't a Swampy Junior as well," she groused. "I already feel like a little kid for having to call in the grown-ups this time round.

She was greeted by a snort from Rufus, who spun around on his stool to face them but never moved from Colby's side. "There ain't nothin' wrong with needin' a little help from time to time," he told her. "Matter of fact, when this whelp was but fourteen," he jerked his chin towards the still sleeping hunter on the bed, "I was huntin' a Wendigo with his Daddy and we got snookered by the sonofabitch into falling down a wellshaft. Good and stuck we were, and this was before every hunter had a cell phone and a GPS. A full day went by then the boy here shows up carrying his Daddy's sword. Cut that Wendigo's head clean off." Rufus laughed hard at the memory before his face saddened.

"That was the first and only time his Daddy ever said a kind word to him. Gave him the sword an' everything." His forehead wrinkled in disapproval as he continued. "The only thing he ever gave him besides a black eye." He shook the scowl off his face. "Anyway, what I'm trying to say is, even the best of us need somebody else's help from time to time."

Ellen nodded her agreement. "Why do you think the Roadhouse was so popular for hunters?" she pointed out to Jo. "It was so they could meet other hunters, partner up, ask for help on jobs."

"There's always stubborn sunsaguns that'll go it alone, but a smart hunter is one who has someone watchin' their back," Rufus added.

Jo listened thoughtfully. If Matt Graves had been working with a partner, he might still be alive. "So who watches his?" she asked, indicating Colby.

Rufus let out another snort. "Kid's got trust issues. On account of him being different. He mostly steers clear of other hunters – some of them bein' the way they are an' all."

Ellen blew out a laugh completely void of humour. "You mean ignorant sonsobitches?"

"Yep," Rufus nodded.

"You care an awful lot about him, don't you?" Jo blurted.

Rufus nodded. "Like he was my own son," he admitted with a shrug.

"He thinks the same about you," she told the older man.

She got a grunt in response but a smile eventually formed on the hunter's weathered face. "I owe you two ladies," he said, his expression sincere. "More than I can ever repay. If you, either of you, ever need any help with anything, you just call."

Ellen's eyebrows raised in apparent surprise at the uncharacteristic gesture from one of the hunting community's most notorious sour-pusses.

"I thought you were retired," Jo pointed out.

Rufus sighed. "I am. But the way things are stirrin', I reckon I'll be back in the game soon enough. Something big's coming. I haven't sussed out just what that is yet, but it's big. And that's bad."

The blonde hunter swallowed hard. She didn't like the sound of that. The kind of big that Rufus was implying would affect everyone. Staying on the sidelines would no longer be safe. Her Mom would no longer be safe.

It struck her suddenly that this heart-gripping fear she was feeling was what her mother must have felt every time her Dad left on another hunt. What the older woman must feel every time her she pictured Jo going on a hunt. Fear for a loved one could be a terrifying and powerful thing and she didn't particularly like it. Maybe keeping her Mother around would ease that worry and, quite possibly, be safer for both of them. After all, there was no denying they had worked well together tonight.

Rufus cleared his throat. "So," he looked eagerly between them, "Either of you two got any scotch on you?"

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

The next half hour dragged slowly even though Jo never stopped moving. Ellen gave her a couple of painkillers to dull the throbbing pain in her side and shoulder from some of Swampy's lucky strikes. She was battered and bruised, as was Ellen, but miraculously, nothing was broken.

Rufus left his post long enough to help drag the heavy carcass of the second Nokken onto the pyre. Jo and Ellen stood side by side by the fire, watching it burn in silence and ignoring the awful stench Swampy gave off as it roasted. They found Ellen's distributor cap lying discarded on the ground behind the cabin and between the two of them, managed to put it back in and get the truck's engine started. Both of them kept stealing glances towards the head of the trail, praying no Rangers showed up.

Jo's thoughts and worries, however, were mostly centered on Colby, her new friend who was quietly fighting for his life inside the cabin. His eyes had become fully dilated right after the potion had been administered, the black pupils completely swallowing any trace of the green around them and looking eerily like a demon's, but Rufus insisted that was to be expected. He kept wincing and clutching at his heart and sides, writhing in silent agony. If Jo was being honest, she was glad to have something to keep her busy because watching his obvious pain and not being able to help him was both frustrating and heartbreaking.

It was almost forty minutes before Colby opened his eyes again, this time managing to focus them on Rufus, who was till sitting on the stool by the head of the bed.

"You hearin' me boy?" the older hunter demanded, leaning over the cowboy.

Colby nodded slowly. "Hey Rufus," he blinked, his forehead creased slightly in confusion. "What's goin' on?"

"You and young Miss Harvelle here decided to piss off a couple of Nokken, remember?"

Colby's eyes widened. "Jo?" he rasped, struggling to get up. "Is she…"

"I'm fine," Jo stepped forward into his view from where she had been standing. "And don't worry, your psycho girlfriend's dead," she added with a grin and a wink. "Mom and I took her out."

She noticed the smile spread across Ellen's face at the comment and spared her a nod of acknowledgement before returning her attention to Colby. "You had me really scared for a while there," she admitted, sitting on the bed next to him and patting his leg.

Colby smiled and shifted uncomfortably, clearly embarrassed at all the attention. Rufus came to his rescue.

"Well, Cole, enough lazing around. We gotta get outta here 'fore someone shows up. You be alright to get into the truck?"

Colby nodded but 'alright' proved to be just well enough that he managed to stay awake while Rufus and Ellen hoisted him up and heaved him into the passenger side of Rufus's pick-up. Shelby, who hadn't left his side all night, jumped in next to him, leaning her furry body heavily against him. Jo noticed the dog simply ignored Rufus. Ellen drove Jo to her Jeep at the end of the trail and the small convoy of three vehicles made their way slowly down the rough track to the main lodge.

Jo was surprised when Rufus's truck pulled up next to the Mustang and she pulled over also. Rufus got out and walked over to her driver's window.

"He okay?" Jo asked worriedly. "I thought you were taking him right to your place?" Rufus's house was in Canaan, a two and a half hour drive away. Jo had insisted on following and sticking around long enough to make sure her friend was indeed going to be fine and Ellen had said she'd do the same. Rufus had mentioned he didn't think Colby was out of the woods just yet and guessed it would be at least a week before the kid was fully recovered.

Rufus rolled his eyes. "Yeah, but Cole's bein' stubborn. He don't want to leave his car here."

Jo looked skeptical. "Can he drive?"

"Hell no," Rufus chuckled. "He was wonderin' if you'd drive it for him."

Jo released a snort of a laugh that apparently it would be okay to leave _**her**_ car there for a couple of days, but nevertheless agreed with a nod. Ellen would surely drive her back here to pick her Wagoneer up later.

Colby also insisted on riding in the Mustang with Jo, which seemed to surprise Rufus slightly but he only grumbled once or twice as he helped Colby switch cars. Colby asked the older man to grab a shirt out of the bag in the trunk and practically fell into his own passenger seat next to Jo.

She looked over at him. "You look like crap," she teased.

He rolled his head towards her. "That's what happens when a swamp monster tries to make you her bitch."

Rufus tossed him the shirt, shut the Mustang's door, and headed back to his own truck. Colby was straining to put the clothing on in the passenger seat as Jo pulled out of the Lodge's driveway after the older hunter, Ellen following close behind.

The blonde looked over at his struggle. "Hey, you don't have to put that on for my benefit, Cole," she grinned. "It's okay with me if you want to sit there shirtless." She laughed at the redness creeping into his cheeks as he finally got his arms through the sleeves.

"Hey, only three people in this world ever got away with calling me Cole," he blushed, clearly trying to change the subject. "That was what my Mom used to call me."

"Oh, sorry," she apologized.

He waved a hand in the air. "Nah, you know what?" he said sincerely, buttoning up the shirt. "I kinda like it when you say it. Guess I can make another exception."

Flattered, Jo grinned and wondered briefly who the third person was, the second clearly being Rufus. "I'm surprised he let you ride with me," she pointed out, nodding her head at the truck driving in front of them. "He was pretty worried about you."

Colby snorted. "Tell me about it. He pretends he couldn't care less about anythin' but he's such a mother hen if yer injured. I wasn't feeling up for two hours of him frettin' amd fussin'."

"Yeah, parents are just like that, I guess," said Jo, glancing in the rear view mirror at her Mom's truck behind them and trying to imagine what her mother's reaction would have been had she been bitten and come that close to dying. Probably even worse than Rufus's.

"Doesn't seem to matter how old you get, does it?" Colby said, not pointing out that Rufus wasn't actually his parent. He settled back in the seat and let out a long, tired sigh.

"No, I guess not," Jo agreed, looking over to find him asleep already.

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

Colby slept most of the drive, awakened when they were just twenty minutes out of Canaan by his cell phone ringing in his pocket. He answered it groggily and spent the next couple of minutes rolling his eyes at whatever the person on the other end was saying. "Yeah…yeah…okay…I got it here, I will…ha ha, you're hilarious…you know, the Brokeback Mountain jokes stopped being funny like two years ago…I'm fine…I'll see you in less than half and hour Old Man…bye."

He hung up and let out a loud sigh. Jo just grinned at him. "That Rufus?"

He nodded, reaching for the small, green, glass bottle Rufus had put in the glove compartment. He winced when he opened it, the foul smell of the liquid filling the car. "I'm supposed to drink this crap every two hours," he griped, screwing up his face as he swallowed three big gulps before putting the cap back on.

"You're such a selective wimp," she observed humorously. "You'll jump in front of a charging monster but you complain like a six year old at taking medicine."

Colby offered her the bottle. "You want to give it a try?" he challenged defensively, though his sheepish grin acknowledged the truth in her tease. "So," he said, leaning back weakly after putting the bottle away. "You gonna fill me in on what happened?" He rolled his head back towards her. "Rufus says you and your Mom took out Swampy Number Two before he showed up."

Jo explained in detail all that had happened from the last thing Colby remembered, which was running back into the cabin after their thwarted attempt to make it to the Jeep. The injured hunter listened in silence, raising an impressed eyebrow at Jo's recounting of the tripwire and the modifications she had made to the stun guns. He let out a low whistle at Ellen thinking to liquefy the stove fuel on the Nokken and ignite it.

"You and your Mom worked well together then, huh?"

"Yeah," Jo nodded. "Actually, we did."

"Promise me you won't hit me if I tell you something?" Colby gave her an apprehensive smile.

Jo narrowed her eyes at him. "I get the feeling I'm not gonna like this."

Colby chuckled. "It's just that on that first mornin', when you got all pissy coz I took a shower in your room…" he started but was interrupted.

"Hey, I didn't get pissy," Jo defended. "I woke up half naked. I didn't know you were gay. You could have been some creepy pervert."

Colby laughed, clutching his stomach and wincing in pain as he reined his breathing back in. "My point was that I convinced you to work together on this hunt, remember?"

Jo nodded.

"Well, truth is, I usually work alone. I hounded you to work with me so I could keep my eye on you, look out for you. I thought you'd get yourself killed if I left you to go after the thing again by yourself."

Jo didn't answer, the admission sinking in but strangely, she wasn't taking any offense. She found it almost impossible to get angry with him.

"As it turns out," Colby continued, "You're the one who had my back. _**You**_ saved _**my**_ ass. And you risked your life to protect me." He looked out the side window at the passing scenery as he spoke, this type of conversation clearly not a normal occurrence for him. "Rufus always says a smart hunter always makes sure someone's got their back. I usually just ignore him but now I'm thinkin' maybe there's some truth to that," he finished quietly as they turned into the driveway behind the old truck.

Jo turned to look at Colby. "I've been thinking the same thing," she admitted. "If either of us hadn't had the other around, we'd both be dead. You know what else? We worked well together. I'm thinking maybe we should take this show on the road. Partner up, work some hunts together," she suggested, liking the thought of working full time with the very likeable cowboy. "Heck, I'd even put up with your squeamishness and take care of all the gory jobs for you."

Colby grinned at her, not making any effort to get up even though she had brought the car to a full stop in Rufus's driveway. His eyes followed Ellen as she got out of her truck.

"I think you've already got a partner," he said, turning back to Jo with a pointed look. "But don't worry 'bout me, I'll find my own." Jo frowned at his assumption about her mother but didn't argue it as she, too, watched Ellen walking towards them.

"But," Colby continued, "If you _**two**_ ever need a hand on a hunt, you just give me a call."

Jo smiled at him. "Ditto," she said sincerely.

"Well, that is if you're not grounded or haven't lost your phone privileges at the time," he teased, opening his door.

Jo backhanded him playfully in the thigh. "Look who's talking Mr. 'drink-your-medicine!'" she retorted, mimicking Rufus's gruff voice.

Rufus appeared and helped Colby out of the car and towards the house with the Harvelles in tow. When they were on the stoop, Jo turned to her mother.

"Hey, Mom, you got a minute?"

Ellen raised an eyebrow but stopped. "Course, honey. What's up?"

Jo paused, acknowledging the sly smile Colby gave her as he disappeared through the door. When the men were out of earshot, she looked her mother in the eye.

"Well, Mom, I've been thinking a lot recently," she started. "I've been thinking about quitting my job and hunting full time." She studied her mother's face, waiting for the disapproving reaction but never got it. Instead, her mother nodded slowly, waiting for her to continue.

"It's hard to keep a job when you don't know where or when hunts are gonna pop up and how long they're gonna take," she explained. "And hunting is my priority. It always has been and probably always will be." Again she waited for a negative reaction and again just got a nod.

Encouraged, she took a deep breath and continued. "We did great last night, Mom," she smiled. "We worked well together and we kicked that monster's ass and you can't tell me that didn't feel good!" she finished, grinning excitedly at the memory.

Ellen grinned back at her. "Okay," the older woman conceded, "I'll admit, it felt pretty damn satisfying."

"What I'm trying to say," Jo now floundered for the right words. "Is that if you still want to and if you're willing to do it full time, I think we could make a pretty good team."

Ellen's whole face lit up and she smiled, though Jo could see her jaw clenched in an effort to contain her emotion and it was a long moment before her mother was able to answer.

"Joanna Beth, I would be honoured to hunt with you. I've been trying to tell you this for ages but just haven't been able to get the words out right. Something big is going on. Rufus said so but I've been hearing things from other hunters too, including Bobby Singer. Whatever's it is, it didn't end when Dean shot the Yellow-Eyed Demon or when he went to Hell. It's still happening and it's high time I got off the sidelines. With my experience and with all I know about hunting, I can do a lot of good fightin' whatever's coming." She paused, glancing away for the briefest of moments.

"I was gonna take up hunting eventually, with or without you," Ellen admitted. "But there's nobody I'd rather have watching my back. The way you kept your cool and booby-trapped the cabin and took out that Nokken…" she paused again, giving Jo a look of immense pride. "Honey, I've never been more proud of you in my life. Your daddy would have been beside himself with pride if he'd have been around to see you in action."

Jo swallowed, not sure what to say to the unexpected praise. "Thanks, Mom. But it was a joint effort."

"So," Ellen laughed, holding out her hand to shake as if sealing a deal. "Partners?"

Jo raised her eyebrow but didn't accept the handshake just yet. "Full time?" she questioned.

Ellen nodded. "I have the insurance money from the Roadhouse," she admitted. "Between that and your hustling skills, we should be able to get by."

Jo took her mother's hand and gave it a firm shake. "Alright, but there are a couple of conditions," she said.

"Uh oh," Ellen rolled her eyes, unable to wipe the smile off her face.

"We're equals, okay?" Jo warned, still gripping Ellen's hand. "If this is gonna work, you can't treat me like I'm a little kid."

"Deal," Ellen agreed sincerely.

"Okay then," Jo let the handshake linger a little longer before dropping it. They stood facing each other on Rufus's porch for a long moment, Jo feeling for the first time like she was seeing her mother as a fellow adult. It felt somewhat strange and definitely overdue, but it felt incredibly satisfying. She had a good feeling about this new step in their relationship, like this partnership could really work.

Eventually, Ellen stepped forward and hugged her daughter fiercely. The younger hunter returned the hug in kind when a gruff voice came floating out of the open door.

"I hate to break up the mother-daughter bonding, but there's scotch in here if anyone's interested," Rufus called out.

The women pulled apart, smiling at each other a little awkwardly. As Jo followed her mother through the doorway, she heard the elder woman say "Well, you had that painkiller earlier so no whiskey for you, Joanna Beth."

She groaned inwardly, doubts and fears about the scary new prospect of spending twenty-four seven with her Mom suddenly racing through her head, mixing with the previous feelings of excitement and happiness about the very same thing. _Oh crap, what had she gotten herself into? _

_( - - - Whatever by Oasis - - - )_

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

_**Author's note**__: It's a start, at least, huh? Even in Abandon All Hope (which takes place almost a year and a half after this), Jo and Ellen were still having their issues about letting Jo grow up so I couldn't solve __**everything**__ now, could I? Hopefully you enjoyed this story as much as I enjoyed writing it. There is an epilogue to come, showing a bit of how Jo and Ellen (and yes, Colby too) evolve and work together over the next year and tying into the cannon events of the show. As usual, your comments are always appreciated!._


	14. Epilogue

**Epilogue: **

_Excerpts from Jo's diary, a series of sidenotes to her hunting journal._

**August 14th, 2008**

Cole just bagged a ghoul closeby in Nebraska so I suggested he come work this hunt with Mom and me here in Iowa. Maybe having him around will help cut down on the twenty-four seven arguments we've been having these days. I thought we were doing alright but then she embarrassed the hell out of me butting in when I was flirting with that guy for intel. I mean, talk about treating me like I'm a little kid! We've been arguing about it for a week straight now.

Colby says he's got a surprise for me - can't imagine what he's talking about. It's been six weeks since we left him at Rufus's – he says he's all healed up, just a couple of small scars where Swampy bit him. I know I talk to him on the phone all the time but it'll be nice to see him again. He just gets me.

**August 15****th****, 2008**

Colby's surprise turned out to be his new boyfriend, Nate, a hunter from Denver. He's real cute but they've only been together two weeks and he's already super clingy. Poor Cole kept rolling his eyes at me in frustration. I give it another month tops.

**August 17****th****, 2008**

Okay, that was just way too close. What a freaking crazy hunt! Mom and I may argue like crazy but I gotta admit, we work well together. She's bossy and controlling but she sure as hell keeps her cool when things get hairy. I was so scared for that moment when I thought she was a goner. It makes me sick to my stomach even thinking about anything happening to her. I love my Mom and we make a pretty awesome team - if only she could open her eyes and realize I'm every bit as capable as she is.

Colby keeps reminding me to appreciate what I have and to give her time. Says she's got twenty three years of habits at being the mom to break and that doesn't happen overnight. I guess he's right. It was nice having Colby around, though he gets along a little too well with Mom now. She absolutely loves him. Him and Nate. I told her not to get too attached to Nate.

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

**October 12****th****, 2008**

Dean's alive! He's fucking ALIVE! This is seriously messed up. That's good news, hell it's great news, but he was _**dead**_! Like ripped to shreds dead. For months. What the hell? My writing's all screwed up because my hand is shaking I'm so stunned.

I don't know what to think. Rufus called Mom but he didn't have any details so Mom called Bobby Singer who says Dean's definitely back. Not a demon or a revenant or some zombie, but he's back as good as new. He wouldn't say how it happened, said they're still sorting out the details, but apparently he's back hunting with Sam.

Part of me wants to call him – hear his voice, hear it for myself, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it. I don't have that silly crush on him anymore and I still care about him but it's been a long time since we talked. He didn't deserve what he got and I couldn't be happier for him. Anyway I ended up calling Cole instead. He lets me ramble like a moron and doesn't make me feel stupid. This is such incredible news. Makes me believe good things can happen after all. I mean, he was dead and now he's living, breathing... this is so crazy.

By the way, I was right about Nate. He's gone back to Denver. Colby's just too used to being alone for things to move that quickly. It's sad cause he's such a good guy and he deserves to be happy.

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

**December 26****th****, 2008**

Mom and I decided to take Colby up on his invitation to spend Christmas with Rufus and him. For a grouchy old guy, Rufus can be quite hospitable, though he'll deny it to the end if you try to point that fact out. I think he likes his antisocial reputation.

You should see the knife Mom gave me for Christmas. We haven't exchanged presents in years and she's never approved of my knife collection, much less added to it. But she gave me this beautiful leather-handled Bowie with esoteric symbols carved into the blade. It should be able to take out all sorts of supernatural bad-asses. Colby got me new tires for my Jeep (I swear sometimes I wonder if he really is gay!) and Rufus gave me a bottle of Johnnie Walker Blue. Apparently that's a huge compliment. Of course, he gave Colby and my Mom the same thing and insisted we open them to celebrate the season.

All in all, this was the nicest Christmas I've had in years. It felt like it used to when Ash was alive and I felt like I had a whole family.

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

**February 16****th****, 2009**

This is a bitch of a hunt. I had to stitch Mom up today. Twelve stitches in her thigh. That's something I don't ever want to have to do again. Funny, but it seems every hunt is more dangerous than the last. There don't seem to be any simple salt and burns anymore. There's always some extra angle or demonic twist that screws everything up.

**February 17****th****, 2009**

Exorcized two demons today. Mom and I sat down and celebrated with a round of shots and she told me she was proud of me. I know she's said it before but hearing her say that doesn't get old. And this time I told her how proud I was to have her as a Mom and to be working with her. She nearly cried she was smiling so hard. It felt good. I should let her know more often how much I love her.

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

**May 4****th****, 2009**

Mom and I are at each other's throats again. We were getting along so well then she goes and does something like this! We're hunting a Berkonge and I come up with this plan to ambush it and she refuses saying it's too dangerous. Well, she's supposed to be my partner, not my boss, so I tell her I'm gonna go ahead with it anyway and she locks me in the bathroom! So right now, I'm sitting in the fucking bathroom of some seedy motel writing in my fucking diary like some bratty teenager. OMG I'm so pissed right now! I called Colby and he's on his way over here but he probably won't get here 'til morning and by that time, it'll be too late for my plan. I hope he gets here before she lets me out or I swear I'll say something I regret. He always manages to calm me down and make me think before I go apeshit on someone. He's gonna have his work cut out for him on this one!

**May 6****th****, 2009**

Mom rocks! We just kicked some serious Berkonge ass! Sure, we got the crap kicked out of all three of us in doing it, but we came out on top. And maybe Mom was right about the ambush idea, it probably wouldn't have worked and I'd probably be dead right now if I'd gone through with it. Doesn't excuse her for locking me in the bathroom, but I can sorta see her point now. I'm still trying to figure out how to tell her that without letting her off the hook though. Up to that point, she had been doing so well in dialing back the bossiness. But if I want her to treat me like an adult, I can't fly off the handle every time she does something motherly, so I'll give it a day and then try to discuss it calmly.

P.S. Colby laughed his ass off when I told him that. I don't see what was so funny - I think I can discuss it like a civilized adult. I'm sure Mom and I will work things out eventually – we're getting there slowly. Colby's heading off on the trail of some big pack of vampires, leader's name is Ivan. Personally, I think he just wants an excuse to use his sword again. I miss him already.

_- - - The End - - -_

_**Author's note:**__ Those of you who have read Next of Kin will recognize the vampire Colby's gone after and know that he eventually catches up with Ivan and the Winchesters in Denver a month from this point. I had a few more journal entries involving Jo's thoughts on what happens in that story but decided to leave this one off here. Hopefully you enjoyed it and hopefully it is a believable transition from season 2 Jo to season 5 Jo. As for Colby, there may have been some objectifying going on (me being the biggest culprit) but since I created him, I can tell you without a doubt that he doesn't mind at all! *lol* And I am sure I will someday write something else with him in it, shirtless as usual._

_I really enjoyed writing Jo and have a new appreciation for the character after having done so. Thanks to those of you who read this, thanks to those of you who favourited and alerted me or the story, and especially thanks to those of you who gave me encouragement and inspiration by reviewing. I seriously love you guys._

_Next up for me is a Western **with Sam and Dean **because I am going through Winchester withdrawl having done this whole story without them. It'll take me a little bit to get enough written to start posting but hopefully not too long. Hope you tune in for that one also._

_– Corrie._


End file.
